The court has ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) to pay damages to one farmer, but rejected four other claims filed against the Dutch parent company.
In 2008, four Nigerian farmers and campaign group Friends of the Earth had filed suits in The Hague and sought compensation for lost income from polluted land and waterways in the Niger Delta region, as a result of oil spill.
Nigerian fishermen and farmers said that oil spills that occurred in 2004, 2005 and 2007, from Shell’s pipelines and production facilities, have polluted the region, and they could no longer feed their families.
The suit was filed against Royal Dutch Shell, as well as its Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC, which operates a joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum, Shell, Total E&P Nigeria and Nigerian Agip Oil Company.
The farmer, 52-year-old Friday Akpan, who won the compensation, was quoted by Reuters as saying that it would allow him to repay his debts.
"I am not surprised at the decision because there was divine intervention in the court. The spill damaged 47 fishing ponds, killed all the fish and rendered the ponds useless," Akpan added.
Following the court’s verdict, Royal Dutch Shell vice president for environment Allard Castelein said, "We will pay compensation. We didn’t lose the case. It was not operational failure. The leak was the consequence of sabotage."
The court ruling, however said that the company’s subsidiary in Nigeria should and could have prevented the sabotage in an easy way.
"This is why the district court has sentenced Shell Nigeria to pay damages to the Nigerian plaintiff," the court added.
The company earlier released a data, which said that in 2012 around 198 oil spills took place at Shell facilities in the Niger Delta, releasing about 26,000 barrels of oil.
Shell, however, clarified that 161 of the spills were the result of sabotage or theft, while only 37 such spills were due to operational failure.
