Alaska News

Shell admits liability in Nigerian oil spill as large as Exxon Valdez

Royal Dutch Shell is liable for two massive oil spills in Nigeria in 2008, which together could be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez environmental disaster in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

That's according to an article Wednesday in The Guardian, which says Shell has "accepted full liability" for the spills that could take "at least" 20 years to clean up. Previously, Shell claimed the spill was under 40,000 gallons and smaller than July's Yellowstone River spill in Montana.

The Guardian now reports that recent filings reveal that following a class-action suit in London, Shell "has accepted responsibility for the 2008 double rupture of the Bodo-Bonny trans-Nigerian pipeline that pumps 120,000 barrels of oil a day through the community."

According to the United Nations, as reported by the Guardian, there have been more than 7,000 oil spills in this region of the Niger delta since 1989 -- totalling more than 13 million barrels -- amounting to an environmental disaster, with oil having sunk below the water table. "International oil spill assessment experts who have seen the Bodo spill believe that it could cost the company more than $100 million to clean up," the Guardian reports.

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Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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