High Court to decide whether Nigerian communities can access documents regarding Shell’s devastating oil pollution of their environment

Shell has been resisting the disclosure of the documents and information since the legal claims began 10 years ago. 
 
The Bille and Ogale communities in the Niger Delta, which have a combined population of 50,000, have been left without clean water and unable to farm and fish due to years of oil pollution. Neither community has had a proper clean up despite the ongoing risk to public health and the oil spills and leaks continue to this day.   
 
The communities are seeking an order that Shell plc should disclose critical documents including from senior executives who were involved in Shell’s Nigerian operation. Their lawyers, Leigh Day, say it is only through analysis of these internal documents that their clients will be able to fully understand Shell’s involvement in the decisions and operations which led to the pollution.  
 
Shell started to sell off its assets in Bille over 10 years ago and has refused to provide any substantial disclosure of documents, making it more difficult for the locals to access critical information.  
 
The hearing follows a four-week High Court trial in February 2025 during which the two communities sought to establish that leaks and spills from Shell’s pipelines and infrastructure have breached their right to a clean and healthy environment under the Nigerian Constitution and African Charter. A judgement on the trial is currently pending. 
 
The latest hearing is the first to take place since Shell plc sold its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC; a deal which the communities and several NGOs believe is an attempt by the company to evade accountability after decades of hugely profitable operations in the country.   
 
Shell has now transferred its operations, and its alleged legacy of environmental pollution across the Niger Delta, to a recently established consortium called Renaissance, about whom there is very little information publicly available.   
 
Shell has said there is no means of guaranteeing that Renaissance will comply with the relevant environmental obligations and instead told the UK Government that it simply had to “trust that they can handle the clean-up”.  As such, these claims now may be the last opportunity to hold Shell responsible for the environmental damage they have caused across the Niger Delta. 
 
The Case Management Conference (CMC) 8 – 10 April 2025 will give directions about how the claims will be managed, including in relation to disclosure and expert evidence, moving forwards towards the Bille community’s final trial starting in late 2026. 
 
Chief Bennett, one of the leaders of the Bille Community, will be at the High Court hearing in London, the first time he has attended court since his community filed their claims a decade ago.  
 
Speaking ahead of the hearing, Chief Bennett said: 
 
“I am very happy that I will be in London to see Shell facing the High Court over the pollution which has wrecked our environment. 
 
“For years, our people have relied on fishing for a living. Now, because of the oil pollution, our rivers and waterways are devastated, and the fish are gone.  
 
“Refusing to hand over these vital documents is part of Shell’s tactics to delay this case. I hope this hearing will be another step forward in our long fight for justice over the oil pollution for which we believe Shell is responsible.” 
 
Leigh Day international department partner, Matthew Renshaw said: 
 
“For more than a decade, Shell has sought to delay and frustrate the legal claims of the Nigerian communities whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated by chronic oil pollution. 
 
“This latest hearing is an important step in the process of establishing what senior executives at Shell plc in London knew about the oil spills and leaks taking place across the Niger Delta over many years. 
 
“It’s time for Shell plc to come clean over what it knew about the pollution and when, instead of repeatedly attempting to block and delay the legal process."