Shell continued operating Nigeria pipeline despite pollution risks, internal documents reveal

British energy giant Shell continued operating a major oil pipeline in Nigeria for years despite internal warnings that the infrastructure posed serious environmental risks, according to confidential company documents obtained by the BBC.

The documents, which include internal emails, presentations and technical assessments, suggest senior Shell officials were aware as early as 2008 that the Nembe Creek Trunk Line in the Niger Delta was operating outside the company’s own technical standards amid widespread oil theft, sabotage and infrastructure failures.

The revelations emerged from documents disclosed during an ongoing legal case in the United Kingdom involving communities from Bille in Rivers State, who are seeking to hold Shell liable for pollution linked to more than 100 oil leaks between 2011 and 2013.

Residents of the riverine community accuse the oil giant of negligence and are demanding $1 billion in damages and environmental remediation, including $250 million in compensation and $750 million for clean-up operations.

The Nembe Creek Trunk Line, a 96.5-kilometre pipeline that transported crude oil from inland oilfields to export facilities, was one of Shell’s largest oil transport systems in Nigeria before it was sold last year. The pipeline had the capacity to carry up to 150,000 barrels of oil daily but became notorious for repeated spills and attacks by oil thieves.

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According to the BBC report, an internal email exchange from October 2008 showed Shell’s then Technical Vice-President, Markus Droll, warning against continued operations under unsafe conditions.

“If there is another massive explosive attack tomorrow… then we could well find ourselves in the situation of simply having to close the production down,” Droll reportedly wrote.

He also questioned whether adequate safeguards were in place and warned that some sections of the pipeline might already be in poor condition.

In response, Shell’s Regional Executive Vice-President at the time, Ms Ann Pickard, reportedly criticised Droll for not marking the communication as legally privileged, warning that the exchange could expose the company in court proceedings.

Although she admitted the decision to continue operating the line was difficult, Pickard argued it represented the “lower risk to both people and environment.”

Further documents from 2012 reportedly showed that Shell classified parts of the pipeline system as ‘red’ because of extensive illegal connections used by oil thieves to siphon crude oil. Under Shell’s own operational standards, such a classification required either an immediate shutdown or urgent corrective measures.

However, executives allegedly concluded that shutting the pipeline could encourage the installation of even more illegal connections elsewhere, leading the company to continue pumping crude through the line.

Shell has defended its actions, insisting the documents lack the broader context of operating in the Niger Delta during a period marked by widespread organised oil theft, militancy and illegal refining activities.

“The documents selected are presented without the critical context of the operating environment in the Niger Delta at the time,” a Shell spokesperson told the BBC.

The company maintained that it invested heavily in spill prevention, surveillance and clean-up operations while working with Nigerian authorities and local communities.

Communities in Bille, however, insist Shell should still bear responsibility for pollution linked to its infrastructure regardless of criminal activity in the region.

Spokesperson for the Bille local leaders’ council, Chief Boma Renner Dappa, accused the company of prioritising profits over the welfare of residents.

“They are not concerned about what happens to you. Their concern is to continue to make profits,” he said, adding that livelihoods and fishing activities in the area had been devastated.

Local fishermen and women say decades of pollution have destroyed aquatic life and contaminated waterways that once sustained the community.

Balafama Augustus Bruce, a 64-year-old fisherman and claimant in the case, said fish species once abundant in the creeks have either disappeared or become deformed due to oil contamination.

“Before 2011, here was a beautiful area. People play here and go into the river,” he said.

“But because of the damage the spills have caused, nobody is fishing here again.”

Another resident, Taminoibitein Philip, who harvests periwinkles in the mangroves, said the pollution had severely affected local food sources and exposed residents to harmful odours from crude oil and gas emissions.

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“When you go to the bush, you won’t see periwinkle anymore,” she said.

“We don’t benefit. We are suffering.”

The BBC report also cited internal Shell communications from 2013 in which company officials reportedly warned that an audit into pipeline integrity and oil theft management could expose the firm to compensation claims and disputes over oil losses.

Another confidential initiative, codenamed ‘Project Madrid,’ reportedly estimated that about 100 illegal refineries were operating around the pipeline area, polluting roughly 9,000 hectares of land and waterways.

Shell has said it will vigorously defend itself when the case goes to trial next year.

The company also argued that members of affected communities participated in oil theft activities that contributed to the environmental damage.

Nigeria’s Niger Delta has suffered decades of oil pollution linked to spills, sabotage and illegal refining activities. According to the United Nations, more than 13 million barrels of crude oil have been spilled in the region since Shell first exported Nigerian crude in 1958.

The environmental crisis in the region has long attracted international criticism and activism, including campaigns led by the late writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military government of Sani Abacha in 1995 after protesting against oil pollution in Ogoniland.