“Shell will never take the role of the government”

“It’s so cosy! I come here and get a cup of coffee and cake.” Annual meetings tend to make for a cosy day out for shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell. When asked, many had opinions about Shell’s operation in Nigeria. 
 
An elderly shareholder, who said his portfolio is worth over three million euros, told the Radio Netherlands Worldwide reporter that, “as soon Shell does something, they blow it up, my dear!” About Shell’s performance on the stock market, he commented: “Awful! Because they’re too honest! I look at the long run my dear!”

At this year’s shareholders meeting, however, it was activists and environmentally conscious shareholders who stole the show, sometimes causing visible irritation among the company’s executives.

Gaz flaring
Nigerian and Dutch environmental and human rights activists bombarded Royal Dutch CEO Peter Voser and Chairman Jorma Ollila with dozens of queries about the company’s environmental record in Nigeria and issues related to its performance as a corporate citizen.

A recurring concern was Shell’s commitment to ending gas flaring, a practice in which oil companies burn gas surpluses that cannot be sold, thus contributing to air pollution through increased C02 emissions.

A spokeswoman for major Dutch pension funds asked the board to provide concrete information related to its plans to stop gas flaring, while a long-time shareholder on a video connection from London asked about the impact of flaring on human health.

Celestine Akpobari, a Nigerian activist, asked when Shell would stop flaring. “It is sad that we talk about profit, profit, profit and not the lives of those who suffer the consequences of your operation.”

Security issues
Shell executive director Malcolm Brinded responded consistently that flaring had been reduced by 65 % since 2002, and that additional investments worth two billion dollars would cover about 75% of Shell’s oil extraction in Nigeria. He admitted that half of this reduction was due to production slowdowns related to security constraints but gave no precise timetable for the completion of the programme. In the past, he said, security issues had slowed down the process. 

About the impact of flares on human health, he said: “There is no evidence to suggest that flares do have a damaging impact on health,” and noted that Shell’s gas flares are scattered over a wide area and “are not located next to local communities.” He added that, “there is climate change impact and so it is important that we try to move as fast as we can to turn the flares out.”

 

Rosy picture
Dutch environmentalist Geert Ritsema, who had just returned from the Niger Delta, was not satisfied with the company’s explanation. “Your rosy picture does not match with what I’ve seen,” he said, describing the situation there as “ecological warfare” and “apocalypse now”.

In a report published last year, Amnesty International concluded that, “The oil industry in the Niger Delta of Nigeria has brought impoverishment, conflict, human rights abuses and despair to the majority of the people in the oil-producing areas.”

During the meeting, Amnesty and the Dutch branch of the Friends of the Earth environmental organisation presented petitions calling on Shell to provide information about the impact of oil exploration in Nigeria on human rights.

At times, Shell Chairman James Ollila appeared slightly irritated at the recurrent questions about Shell’s environmental record. For their part, activists continued to ask for – and were denied – concrete timetables for cleaning up the environment.

One 90-year-old shareholder told Radio Netherlands Worldwide: “They have so much money, they can do a lot. They do their best, but there’s so much corruption, it’s so difficult to operate there.”
 

"Shell will never take the role of the government"
On oil spills in the Delta region, CEO Peter Voser repeated Shell’s assertion that 98% are caused by sabotage, a figure that is disputed amongst activists. Asked about Shell’s contribution to improving the lives of communities in the region, he said that, “Shell will never, never take the role of the government. We are in a joint venture where the government has a major share and gets up to 90% of the revenues… but we cannot take the role of the government in improving the communities or the lives in the Niger Delta.”

Shell said that over the last five years it has paid 36 billion dollars to the Nigerian government from the joint venture operation in the Delta, in the form of taxes and revenues and says it has supported schools and hospitals and run HIV AIDS programmes.

Celestine Akpobari commented that this is worthless if the same people have no access to clean water, clean air and electricity. “Is it not a shame that after 50 years of oil exploitation, we cannot turn on a tap in one community that has oil?”

He said he is returning to Nigeria empty-handed, disappointed that executives had not given specific answers to the questions. “We wanted a statement on gas flaring and they continued to dance around.”

“The kind of directors we have at Shell, they are no different from Nigerian politicians!”