Shell Nigeria

Shell Nigeria is the colloquial name for Royal Dutch Shell's Nigerian operations carried out through four subsidiaries—primarily through Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC). Royal Dutch Shell accounts for more than 40% of Nigeria's total petroleum production (899,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 1997) from more than eighty fields.

History

Shell started business in Nigeria in 1937 as Shell D’Arcy. In 1938, the company was granted an exploration license. In 1956, Shell Nigeria discovered the first commercial oil field at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta and the oil export started in 1958.

Structure

Shell Petroleum Development Company

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is the largest fossil fuel company in Nigeria, which operates over 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) of pipelines and flowlines, 87 flowstations, 8 natural gas plants and more than 1,000 producing wells. SPDC's role in the Shell Nigeria family is typically confined to the physical production and extraction of petroleum. It is an operator of the joint venture, which composed of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55%), Shell (30%), Total S.A. (10%) and Eni (5%). Until relatively recently. it operated largely onshore on dry land or in the mangrove swamp.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) was established in 1993. It operates two offshore licenses, including for the Bonga Field.

Shell Nigeria Gas

Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) was established in 1998 for Shell Nigeria natural gas activities and natural gas transmission system operation.

Shell Nigeria Oil Products

Shell Nigeria Oil Products (SNOP) was incorporated in 2000 for developing the market for Shell branded products and services, such as fuels, chemicals and lubricants.

Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas

Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is a joint venture for liquefied natural gas production. Shell has a share of 25.6% in this company and is also its technical adviser. Other partners are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Total (15%) and Eni (10.4%).

Human rights controversies

In the 1990s tensions arose between the native Ogoni people of the Niger Delta and Shell. The concerns of the locals were that very little of the money earned from oil on their land was getting to the people who live there, and the environmental damages caused by Shell's practices [1]. In 1993 the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) organised large protests against Shell and the government, often occupying the refineries. Shell withdrew its operations from the Ogoni areas and the Nigerian government raided their villages and arrested some of the protest leaders. Some of these arrested protesters, Ken Saro-Wiwa being the most prominent, were later executed on trumped-up charges of inciting violence, against widespread international opposition from the Commonwealth of Nations.

While Shell maintained that it asked the Nigerian government for clemency towards those found guilty but its request was refused, a 2001 Greenpeace report found that "two witnesses that accused them later admitted that Shell and the military had bribed them with promises of money and jobs at Shell. Shell admitted having given money to the Nigerian military...". Later violence in Ogoniland led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and razing of dozens of villages, with arms and ammunition supplied by Shell to the Nigerian police.

In December 2003, Shell Nigeria acknowledged that "we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts, gain access to land, and deal with community representatives", and that it intends to improve on its practices.

 

 

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