Amnesty International has revealed court documents, which indicated that Shell made false claims on two oil spills at Bodo in Nigeria in 2008.
The documents revealed that the company has repeatedly made false claims about the size and impact of spills and it knew for years that its oil pipelines in the Niger Delta were in very poor condition and likely to leak.
Shell investigation reports carried out in conjunction with others for both the spills claim that only around 4,000 barrels of oil were spilt in total.
Amnesty International used an independent assessment published by US company Accufacts and calculated that the total amount of oil spilt crossed 100,000 barrels.
A study carried out in 2000 revealed that the remaining life of majority of Shell oil trunklines is more or less non-existent or short, while some sections contain major risk and hazards.
Amnesty International global issues director Audrey Gaughran said: "Amnesty International firmly believes Shell knew the Bodo data were wrong. If it did not it was scandalously negligent – we repeatedly gave them evidence showing they had dramatically underestimated the spills."
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By GlobalData"Shell has refused to engage with us and only now that they find themselves in a UK court have they been forced to come clean."
"It’s outrageous that Shell has continued to blame the vast majority of its spills on saboteurs while knowing full well how bad a state its pipelines were in. After these revelations, the company stands completely discredited."
Image: Shell investigation reports for both the spills claim that only around 4,000 barrels of oil were spilt in total. Photo: Courtesy of
anankkml/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
