Dutch TV Documentary: Shell denies alleged complicity of staff in vandalism

Nathan Tamarapreye

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has said that the alleged Dutch Television documentary that its employees were involved in pipeline vandalism for personal gains lacks evidence.

A Dutch Television in a documentary produced in collaboration with an environmental rights group Milieudefensie and aired on Thursday alleged that staff of SPDC benefit from vandalism of assets.

Reacting to the alleged complicity of employees, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, SPDC’s Media Relations Manager, said in a statement on Friday that there was no report of any employee involved in vandalism, adding that when there is any evidence the oil firm will investigate it.

“SPDC does not have any formal report of named SPDC staff members or contractors involved in pipeline vandalism or crude oil theft.

“SPDC, like other Shell companies globally, investigates all credible reports it receives of misconduct or unethical behaviour and takes robust action where evidence exists,” Odugbesan said.

Odugbesan noted that SPDC has multiple ways the public can report allegations of wrongdoing by anyone working for SPDC, including a telephone helpline available round the clock and a dedicated email address.

According to him, the company monitored its facilities while any incident or suspected criminal activities are promptly reported to the regulators and government security agencies for investigation and possible prosecution.

He said that as part of measures adopted to discourage host communities from tampering with SPDC assets in their communities, clean up jobs were not given to community contractors if the leak was traced to sabotage.

Odugbesan added that as a policy the oil firm does not pay compensation for spills found to have resulted from sabotage activities.

“All spills are assessed by a government-led joint investigation team.

“Where sabotage is established, the clean-up contract is not awarded to contractors from the host community to ensure that possible accomplices do not benefit from such activities.

“SPDC cleans up and remediates areas impacted by spills that come from its operations, irrespective of cause of spill,” Odugbesan said.