The 80-page report,
titled "Bad Information -- Oil Spills in the Niger Delta," cites
corrosion, poor maintenance, equipment failure, sabotage and oil theft
as causes of oil spills.
But it challenges the company's assertion that the vast majority of the spills are caused by sabotage and theft.
"There is no legitimate
basis for this claim," the report says. "It relies on the outcome of an
oil spill investigation process -- commonly known as the Joint
Investigation Visit or JIV process -- in which the companies themselves
are the primary investigators."
Reliable data about the
spills is critical to limiting the harm they can cause to the
environment, livelihoods and human health, the report says.
Determining their cause
is critical because communities affected by spills blamed on sabotage or
theft get no compensation in Nigeria, which is itself a flaw, the
report says.
"Oil companies should be
held responsible for a spill that is due to sabotage or theft if the
operator has failed to take sufficient measures to prevent tampering
with its infrastructure," it says.
In response, Shell -- in a
statement sent to CNN by spokesman Ross Whittam -- said: "The Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) firmly rejects
unsubstantiated assertions that they have exaggerated the impact of
crude oil theft and sabotage to distract attention from operational
performance.
"We seek to bring greater
transparency and independent oversight to the issue of oil spills, and
will continue to find ways to enhance this. These efforts include
publishing spill data online since January 2011 and working with Bureau
Veritas, an independent third party, to find ways to improve the
immediate response to a spill."
The Amnesty report
acknowledges improvements since 2011, but says "serious flaws remain" in
the company's oil spill investigation process.
"These include
weaknesses in the underlying evidence used to attribute spills to
sabotage and the fact that the JIV reports are filled out by Shell after
the joint investigation process -- not as part of the joint
investigation process. There is, consequently, a lack of transparency
and oversight in terms of what is recorded on the new JIV reports."
But Shell said in its
statement that SPDC cannot control the joint investigation process,
since it involves representatives of regulatory bodies, the Ministry of
Environment, the Nigerian Police Force, the state government and
affected communities.
The company cited a
recent report from Britain's Chatham House that said an average of
100,000 barrels of oil were stolen each day in the first quarter of this
year.
"Coordinated action from
the industry, government, security forces, civil society and others is
needed to end this criminality, which remains the main cause of oil
pollution in the Delta today," it said. "SPDC regrets that some NGOs
continue to take a campaigning approach rather than focusing on
on-the-ground solutions that bring societal benefits."
Audrey Gaughran,
director of global issues for Amnesty in London, rejected the company's
characterization of the report's claims as "unsubstantiated."
"The assertions are very
well substantiated in the report," she said in a telephone interview.
"We've taken the process down step by step, with expert advice, and
provided individual cases, and all of this was provided to Shell
beforehand to seek responses, and we got no responses to anything."
She also disputed the company's description of Bureau Veritas as independent. "Bureau Veritas is hired by Shell," she said.
And she said the Chatham
House report is irrelevant. "Yes, it documents significant theft,"
which is a serious issue, she said. But, she added, "Theft is not oil
spills. Proving there's loads of theft doesn't prove there's lots of oil
spills due to the theft."
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