Dutch Court orders Shell to compensate Nigeria farmers for oil spills

In a landmark verdict, a Dutch court, Wednesday morning, ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, a subsidiary of the global petroleum company, Shell, to pay damages in just one of the five cases brought against it by Niger Delta farmers at the Hague.

The court dismissed four other cases brought against the oil giant. It ruled that those oil spills were not caused by defective maintenance by Shell, but by sabotage from third parties.

The court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell can be held partially responsible for pollution in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, saying the company should have prevented sabotage at one of its facilities.

The district court in The Hague ordered Shell to pay unspecified damages to one farmer, but dismissed four other claims filed against the Dutch parent company.

The case was seen by activists as a test for holding multinational companies responsible for alleged offences at foreign subsidiaries.

Four Nigerians and interest group Friends of the Earth filed the suit in 2008 in the Netherlands, where Shell has its global headquarters, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the Niger Delta region.

The court backed Shell's argument that the spills were caused by sabotage and not poor maintenance of its facilities, as had been argued by the Nigerians.

"Shell Nigeria should and could have prevented this sabotage in an easy way," the ruling said. "This is why the district court has sentenced Shell Nigeria to pay damages to the Nigerian plaintiff."

The Nigerians - fishermen and farmers - said they could no longer feed their families because the region had been polluted by oil from Shell's pipelines and production facilities.