Shell oil disaster in Nigeria and Tony Blair

This video says about itself:

13 November 2014

Court documents expose Shell’s false claims on Nigeria oil spills. Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues explains the significance of these documents and the potential repercussions.

By Solomon Hughes in Britain:

The Blair aide behind two oil-linked disasters

Friday 30th January 2015

Solomon Hughes on how Shell tried to downplay an oil spill which destroyed a Nigerian fishing industry for a generation

Earlier this month Shell finally announced an out-of-court settlement paying £55 million to 15,000 Nigerian fishermen and their community in compensation for a massive oil spill which destroyed their fishing industry for a generation.

Shell admitted liability for the oil spill in 2011, but has been arguing about the size of the spill and the compensation for years. Martin Day of the fishermen’s lawyers Leigh Day welcomed the settlement but said it was “deeply disappointing” that Shell took so long to agree the payment.

In September 2013, Shell met the fishermen directly but, their lawyers said, the fishermen rejected an offer that was “derisory and insulting.”

Leigh Day said that Shell was “playing games with people’s lives.”

Amnesty International, which also took the fishermen’s side, said Shell had relied on data showing only a small oil spill around the town of Bodo, rather than the massive spill that it actually finally admitted to in court.

Amnesty International “firmly believes Shell knew the Bodo data were wrong. If it did not it was scandalously negligent.”

Who could be running a company that took so long to be held responsible?

Tony Blair’s former foreign policy adviser Nigel Sheinwald joined Royal Dutch Shell’s board in July 2012, and sits on its corporate social responsibility committee.

The former Blair aide has been in charge of Shell’s “responsibility” for much of the time that the Nigerian fishermen have been saying the firm was irresponsible.

The latest corporate social responsibility report is full of claims that Shell acted responsibly over oil spills in the Niger Delta, but there was no mention of the Bodo claim.

The final Bodo settlement suggests the fishermen were right. Sheinwald was one of Blair’s chief advisers during the Iraq war, so this is the second time he has been involved in an oil-linked disaster.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy British gas producer BG Group for 47 billion pounds ($69.7 billion) in a cash and stock takeover, the companies announced Wednesday. The move gives oil giant Shell a greater stake in the world’s natural gas markets in the wake of tumbling oil prices: here.