Shell in the Niger Delta

•The Niger Delta is one of the world’s 10 most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems and is home to some 31 million people. Its huge oil deposits have been extracted for decades by the government of Nigeria and by multinational oil companies.

•The Shell Petroleum Development Company has been the major oil producer in the Niger Delta for over 50 years. It is a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, based in the UK and the Netherlands. The majority of cases of oil pollution in the Niger Delta reported to, and investigated by, Amnesty International relate to Shell.

•The results of Shell’s oil extraction in the Niger Delta includes poisoned rivers, mangrove swamps and farming lands, and impoverished communities that depend on these natural resources for their survival. Livelihoods have been destroyed.

•In August 2011, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) exposed widespread and severe oil contamination in Ogoniland, following its landmark scientific assessment of oil contamination in the area. In its report UNEP found that Shell has been failing to properly clean up pollution for years.

•Amnesty International has called on Shell to set up an independent cleanup fund for the Niger Delta with an INITIAL amount of $1 billion, although the final amount will be tens of billions of dollars, and is calling on them to own up to their part responsibility for the pollution of the Niger Delta and their responsibility for cleaning it up.