The Skinny on Shell

Since Shell began drilling in Nigeria's Niger Delta, it has wreaked environmental havoc on the land of the Ogoni. Shell has spilled oil on farmland and in water sources, bulldozed across farms and flared gas just meters from Ogoni villages. The people of Ogoniland suffer extreme health problems from the air and water pollution. The Nigerian military has played a terrifying role in the continued persecution of the Ogoni: when the Ogoni started demanding environmental justice, villages were attacked, villagers killed and their leader was executed by the judgment of a military court. Shell has admitted to paying the military, which brutally silences voices crying for justice from the government of Nigeria and Shell, along with other multinational oil corporations.

Shell is only one of many multinational oil corporations operating in Nigeria. Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, Agip (Italian) and Elf (French) are also found in Nigeria, operating as partners of the Nigerian government, as required by Nigerian law.. Shell is certainly not the only oil corporation that abuses its money, power, and feeling of superiority over the people of Nigeria.

Essential Action calls on all corporations operating in Nigeria, to be respect the rights and freedom of Nigerians and to act responsibly. We focus our attention on Shell because it runs half of all oil and gas operations in Nigeria, is (at least for now) the largest oil corporation in the world, and has been caught redhanded. If Shell is forced to change, and truly put principles before profits, other corporations in Nigeria will be forced to follow suit.

"Pressure Mounts Against Oil Companies in Nigeria" from March 1999 Earth First! Journal

Shell Rap Sheet from Essential Action

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