Urgent call to Shell: Don’t leave the Niger Delta without cleaning up decades of pollution
Last week, Shell reported that it officially completed the sale of its on-shore oil assets in the Niger Delta, leaving behind a vast oil pollution caused by 70 years of oil extraction in the region.
Despite the local communities and international civil society calls to President Tinubu and the decision from Nigeria's regulatory authority NUPRC to refuse Shell divestment request, the deal appears to be closed.
Both ENDS and our Nigerian partners have been calling for a responsible exit for years. This means that Shell and it's Nigerian daughter company SPDC should first clean up the extreme polution caused by their oil winning activities over decades.
Just transition = responsible divestment
The history of the energy transition is being written now. Whilst Shell's oil extraction in the Niger Delta and the pollution and conflict accompanied by it wrote history as a bad example of the fossil fuel era, the same now threatens to happen with Shell's irresponsible exit from the Niger Delta. The energy transition can only be just if oil companies' divestment occurs in a responsible way by cleaning up the pollution and repairing other damage caused by their actions.
By selling it's shares of SPDC before the clean-up of the Niger Delta's polluted ecosystem has even properly started, it appears that Shell is washing its hands of the Niger Delta. This is an example of the oil industry's irresponsible divestment strategy, passing toxic assets and liabilities to others. Unfortunately, the victims are the hundreds of thousands of Niger Delta citizens forced to live with the vast pollution left by SPDC operations.
Call for full clean-up
Today, on Shell Capital Markets Day 2025, Both ENDS together with 195 international and Nigerian of civil society organisations is sending an open letter to Shell Plc Executive Committee to demand the full clean up of SPDC pollution legacy and to share publicly how this essential process will occur.
In particular, Both ENDS calls upon all Dutch investors in Shell to ensure corporate accountability and responsibility.
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Letter / 16 December 2024
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The proposed sale of Shell’s shares in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to the Renaissance consortium, alongside similar divestments by TotalEnergies and other oil companies, threatens the Niger Delta and its people environmental and social well-being for generations to come.
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Letter / 25 March 2025
Letter to Shell's CEO and plc Executive Committee: don’t leave the Niger Delta without cleaning up
Today, on Shell Capital Markets Day 2025, Both ENDS together with 195 international and Nigerian of civil society organisations is sending an open letter to Shell’s Executive Committee demanding a full cleanup of the SPDC pollution legacy and transparency on the cleanup process.
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