Shell accused of ignoring pollution evidence in Nigeria

**Oliver Conway** (0:00)
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Wednesday, the 3rd of June. BBC News finds that Shell pumped oil for years despite knowing it was causing widespread pollution. The Trump administration scraps plans for a $1.8 billion fund that critics said could give payouts to rioters who attacked the US Capitol. And Microsoft says its new quantum computing chip is 1,000 times more reliable than its predecessor.
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**Fiona Thistlethwaite** (0:35)
This new drug actually switches up proteins on the cancer surface so that the immune system can now see the cancer and can then destroy the cancer cells.

**Oliver Conway** (0:46)
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But first, the British oil giant Shell continued to operate a major pipeline in Nigeria, even though bosses knew it was causing widespread pollution, according to secret internal documents obtained by the BBC. Exchanges between senior executives, disclosed during a legal case, showed they understood the risks posed by one of the firm's main pipelines to both the local people and the environment, yet chose not to shut it down. Shell has always argued that pollution in the Niger Delta is caused by the theft and illegal refining of oil taken from the pipeline. Our Africa correspondent Simi Jolosho reports from Billy.

**Simi Jolosho** (1:34)
Decaying and dead mangroves along the banks of creeks are among the most visible signs of the legacy of oil giant Shell here in Billy, where families survived on fishing for generations. Like 64-year-old Bala Farma Bruce, who says oil spills over the last decade have made it increasingly difficult.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:57)
You fall to 11

**SPEAKER_3** (1:58)
Here is a beautiful area. People play here.

**Peter Bowes** (2:01)
You go to the river here.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:02)
The pollution has caused me that I have stopped my restaurant business. Because of that, I become poor.

**Simi Jolosho** (2:07)
So what do you do now?

**SPEAKER_5** (2:09)
I eat from hand to mouth.

**Simi Jolosho** (2:10)
Shell's pipeline that runs near Billy pumped up to 150,000 barrels a day.
It's a part of the country blighted by attacks and organized theft of oil, including hundreds of illegal refineries, many of which caused pollution. The way Shell handled their operation is under the spotlight. And now, documents obtained by the BBC show the company kept pumping, despite knowing it was causing widespread pollution. One internal document from 2012 shows how Shell executives signed off to keep a Nigeria pipeline pumping for another two years, even though it didn't meet its usual technical standards.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:53)
They are not concerned about what happened to you. Their concern is continuous to make profit.

**Simi Jolosho** (2:59)
That's Chief Bomadapa, the spokesperson for the Belay Kingdom Chiefs' Council.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:04)
All that has happened in this environment is as a result of negligence. They don't care.

**Simi Jolosho** (3:10)
A 2013 email chain reveals Shell's then-general manager for onshore assets warned colleagues an audit of Shell's operations in the country would fail.
The following month, Shell executives launched a confidential working group codenamed Project Madrid. It unmasked the scale of the oil leaks, 100 illegal refineries polluting 9,000 hectares of water and 9,000 hectares of land. Shell says its decisions were based on complex factors like security and the environment and that it cleaned up spills regardless of the cause. Shell has blamed oil spills here on theft from its pipelines, but the Project Madrid files show that bosses were considering carrying on pumping from its pipeline like the one that runs through here, even though they knew it would cause more pollution.
One slide in the project posed a stark question. Are we comfortable to continue production knowing that further environmental damage will occur? A spokesperson for Shell told the BBC, the documents selected are presented without the critical context of the operating environment in the Niger Delta at the time. He said, in isolation, they do not reflect the challenges of working against the backdrop of widespread organised criminality.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:36)
The river is our farm, but now there is no way for us again.

**Simi Jolosho** (4:40)
Periwinkle harvester, 49-year-old Tammy Nobuten-Philip, says pollution has transformed the creeks where she once worked.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:49)
Because when you go to the bush, you will not see periwinkle again. And the odour is like crude. Some places, when you go, you will perceive gas. They are collecting our oil every blessed day, but without benefits.

**Simi Jolosho** (5:05)
Her sentiments are echoed by Chief Bumadapu.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:08)
We might not even know the damage it has caused us in terms of health. We don't have farmland. We are surrendered by river. Our people's means of livelihood is gone.