Supreme Court rules in favour of Shell over Nigeria oil spill

The UK’s highest court has ruled in favour of energy giant Shell in a dispute over a 2011 oil spill in Nigeria.

The claim is centred around an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil that leaked over a period of six hours in December 2011 while an oil tanker was loaded at Shell’s Bonga oil field, around 120km off the cost of Nigeria.

A group individuals and communities have alleged that Shell was liable for the leak, with the resulting oil slick reaching the Nigerian Atlantic shoreline and polluting waterways and land, and damaging farming, fishing and drinking water.

But in a judgement published on Wednesday, a panel of five Supreme Court justices upheld the ruling of two lower courts, which found that the appellants had brought their case after the expiry of a six-year legal deadline. The appeal was therefore unanimously rejected.

Shell disputes that the oil spill impacted the shoreline, claiming instead that it was successfully contained and dispersed offshore.

As at 1330 BST, shares in Shell were trading 1% higher at 2,406p.