Royal Dutch Shell Plc has disclosed plans to challenge the $5 billion fine levied against it by the Nigerian government for an offshore spill from one of its fields last year.
Officials of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) told members of the House Committee on Environment earlier this week that Shell has been fined $5 billion for spilling an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Guinea in December 2011, from its Bonga field.
But in a statement yesterday managing director of the local Shell unit, ChikeOnyejekwe, said “Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company will challenge any attempt to impose such a penalty.”
The oil giant has maintained that none of the crude reached land and that much of the leaked oil dispersed naturally in the water or evaporated.
“Shell responded to this incident with professionalism and acted with the consent of the necessary authorities at all times to prevent an environmental impact,” a company spokesman told Fox Business.
According to Onyejekwe, NOSDRA's own analysis did not show any significant agreement between the fingerprint values from Bonga oil samples and those from the communities.
Shell was forced to halt production from the 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga field in December after a leak occurred during a routine tanker loading operation and the company has argued that the spill did not reach the coastline.
According to Shell's estimate of the 40,000 barrels of oil spilled in the Bonga leak, the fine equates to around $125,000 a barrel.