The Supreme Court of Nigeria has maintained a lower court order prohibiting Shell Plc from selling its assets in Nigeria until a dispute between the oil firm and a Niger Delta town over an oil leak in 2019 is addressed.
Shell was prevented from selling any assets in Nigeria by the High Court in March until the matter was resolved. Eighty-eight communities in Rivers state were awarded $1.95 billion in compensation for an oil spill blamed on Shell that destroyed their farms and waterways.
Shell, which has claimed responsibility for the disaster, has challenged the award of damages and the injunction against the sale of its assets. After submitting an appeal, the business moved on to offer for bids on the assets.
However, the Supreme Court ruled on June 16 that the parties should “keep the status quo” until all Shell and community applications are heard later this year.
“What the status quo means here is that there should be no bids, no sales until the applications are heard on November 3, 2022,” Mohammed Ndarani, a lawyer representing Delta communities, told reporters on Monday.
A request for comment was not immediately returned by a Shell spokeswoman.
Shell is selling its investment in Nigeria’s onshore fields, where it has operated since the 1930s, as part of a global effort to decrease carbon emissions.
The business which is the largest international oil corporation operating in Nigeria has previously been involved in a number of legal disputes involving oil spills.
Shell reported in April that the volume of crude oil spilled in the Delta due to sabotage more than doubled to 3,300 tonnes last year, a level last seen in 2016.
