The Man's response

So how did yesterday’s webchat with Shell go?

At Amnesty, lots of us sat together in a lively hub submitting questions to Shell and chatting online with others who are concerned about the impacts of the oil industry in the Niger Delta.

It was interesting seeing what questions the Shell execs chose to answer – and the ones they ignored. And we think they made the odd gaff or two! You can see for yourself in this full transcript of the conversation.

At one point, when asked whether Shell believed the oil industry had led to anincrease in poverty in the Niger Delta, Shell's Basil E. Omiyi said yes, but then qualified it…

Shell also claimed that all oil spills receive immediate attention, which Amnesty’s recent reportdisputes.

When askedabout the ongoing filthy practice of gas-flaring the Shell reps simply said theyhave reduced the amount of gas-flaring they do, omitting to mention that it’sbeen illegal for more than 20 years!

In our parallel webchat on protectthehuman.com experts from Amnesty, the Remember Saro Wiwa campaign and others pulled apart the stat that Shell had reduced gas-flaring since 2002, stating that gas-flaring had been at an all time high that year and you get a much lower figure if go even just go back to 1999.

So all in all – it’s good that Shell didn’t stonewall completely and did try toprovide some opportunity to question them direct. But did we really expect more than pap answers and spin?