The Dutch environmental organisation, Milieudefensie, created a burning Shell logo at the company’s international headquarters in the Hague as a protest to Shell's useless flaring of natural gas in the Niger Delta. The burning logo consisted of a hundred and ten torches carried by activists. 

Natural gas is released during oil production. The use of flaring is a backward technique which releases the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere in Nigeria as half of the cars in the Netherlands do.

“Shell lets its 110 metre high torches burn day and night in Nigeria. This has disastrous consequences for the environment and the surrounding inhabitants. In the Netherlands something like this would never happen. We call on Shell not to do something in Nigeria which would never be allowed in her own backyard.” said Geert Ritsema, the spokesperson for Milieudefensie.

With this protest, teh organisation has started their campaign ‘Nigeria Burns, Shell stop it’. It calls on citizens, car owners, stockholders and employees of Shell, to drive the direction of Shell to stop the waste of natural gas in Nigeria.

The practice of gas flaring was banned by law in 1984. It contributes substantially to both the worldwide climate problem as well as the poisoning of the Nigerian living environment.

The gas does not have to go to waste. There exists a way to use the gas and turn it into electricity. This installation costs 3 billion euros, but the multi-national which expects a thirteen-billion-euro revenue in the region, refuses to invest in one.

In the past the company promised on more than one occasion to stop the flaring of natural gas. But it has never kept its promise.

Geert Ritsema: "Shell has to announce when they will stop flaring natural gas in Nigeria. And keep their word on their promise.”