On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court ruled that it was too late for a group of Nigerian claimants to sue two Shell (SHEL.L) subsidiaries over a 2011 offshore oil spill

that they claim had a devastating long-term impact on their coastal region. This case was one of many legal battles Shell has been fighting in London courts against residents of Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, a region that has been plagued by pollution, conflict, and corruption related to the oil and gas industry.

The spill occurred on December 20, 2011, during the loading of an oil tanker at Shell's Bonga oil field, which is located 120 km off the coast of the delta, and resulted in the leakage of an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil. The group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities attempted to sue Shell, alleging that the resulting oil slick polluted their lands and waterways, damaging farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests, and religious shrines.

However, a panel of five Supreme Court justices unanimously upheld the rulings of two lower courts that found the claimants had brought their case after the expiry of a six-year legal deadline for taking action. The claimants' lawyers had argued that the ongoing consequences of the pollution represented a "continuing nuisance," a type of civil tort, which would have meant the deadline did not apply. Justice Andrew Burrows, delivering the ruling, stated, "The Supreme Court rejects the claimants' submission. There was no continuing nuisance in this case."

The court did not rule on the disputed facts, as it was only deciding the legal point about nuisance. Shell had disputed the claimants' allegations, stating that the Bonga spill did not impact the shoreline. Just two Nigerian citizens were appellants in the Supreme Court case, but the ruling will also apply to the thousands of other claimants.

Shell said the Supreme Court ruling had brought an end to all legal claims in English courts related to the spill. "While the 2011 Bonga spill was highly regrettable, it was swiftly contained and cleaned up offshore," a Shell spokesperson said.

In another case, the Supreme Court previously ruled against Shell regarding pollution in the Niger Delta. In February 2021, it allowed a group of 42,500 farmers and fishermen from the Ogale and Bille communities to sue Shell over spills, and that case is currently going through the High Court. In a separate case, Shell agreed in 2015, after a protracted legal battle in London, to pay out 55 million pounds ($70 million) in compensation to the delta's Bodo community for two spills. Photo by Coolcaesar, Wikimedia commons.