NLNG Issue 'Resolved', Now Shell Faces Fresh Claim
Royal Dutch Shell's feed gas supplies to the Nigeria LNG plant are normal, Shell finance chief Simon Henry said at a May 4 press briefing for the group’s 1Q 2016 results. But the senior executive said it was too soon to comment on a separate $6.5bn claim lodged by the Nigerian government.
Bayelsa state government ordered Shell to close the Gbaran Ubie facility in mid-April but subsequent reports indicated that the company was continuing to produce there. The facility has production capacity of at least 1bn ft3/d (10.3bn m3/yr) and is a significant feed gas supplier to NLNG, with expansion work in progress.
“At Gbaran Ubie, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding, but we continue to operate -- or at least produce gas -- for NLNG, and NLNG is operating normally on that,” Henry told NGA without elaborating further.
Henry was also asked to comment on Nigerian press reports on May 3 that Nigeria’s federal government had filed a claim for a $6.5bn (1.3 trillion naira) against Shell over oil spilled on December 20, 2011 on behalf of 350 communities in the Delta and Bayelsa states in the Niger Delta region. Vanguard newspaper said 884bn naira is compensation for the people affected, 495bn naira for restitution/clean-up and 50mn naira for legal costs.
“The Nigeria announcement is very current,” said Henry on May 4. “It’s basically only yesterday that anything had been said. We’re assessing what the situation is. We believe this relates to a small oil spill that was contained some time ago in the Bonga offshore facility, and we will see how that progresses. It’s not the only claim that we have outstanding in the country. There's not a lot more that I can say at this point in time.”
In March 2016 the English High Court agreed to hear decade-old claims against Shell over oil spills from the Ogale and Bille communities; last year Shell paid out $83.5mn in settlement of claims by the separate Bodo community
Mark Smedley