A Nigerian fishing community “devastated” by two serious oil spills in 2008 will receive more than $80 million from Royal Dutch Shell it was announced on Wednesday.

According to a report by AFP the Anglo-Dutch energy giant’s Nigerian arm has agreed to pay $83.5m to people in Bodo, a town in southern Nigeria, following a three-year legal battle.

The Shell Petroleum Company of Nigeria (SPDC) will pay around $35m compensation to 15 600 Nigerian fishermen whose livelihoods were affected, and a further $20m to the wider community, the agency reported.

Each individual will receive around $2 200, equivalent to around three years’ income on the Nigerian minimum wage, said their London-based lawyers Leigh Day, who have received the money.

Clean up could take years

SPDC is set to clean up the affected area, but insisted most oil pollution in the Niger Delta region was caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refining. Commentators said the clean-up could take several years.

Nigerian ecologist Ako Amadi, who heads the Community Conservation and Development Initiative group, said this was more important than the compensation the agency reported.

“The issue is whether [the Bodo people] can go back to their activities which were fishing and farming,” he said.

“Even if both the Nigerian government and Shell get very serious about it, it could take at least five to 10 years to restore things to where they were before the oil spills.

–AFP