By Obiabin Onukwugha
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, presided over by Justice Ambrose Alagoa has fixed May 26, 2025, to hear a suit seeking to stop Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited from transferring its mining licence to Nigerian consortium, Renaissance African Energy Company Limited.
The suit instituted by Incorporated Trustees of HEDA Resource Centre, is among other things, seeking the court declaration to stop the Nigerian government from allowing Shell to use the assignment of its interest to Renaissance African Energy Company Limited as an escape route to avoid due compliance with the laws, to the detriment of Nigerians.
Listed as the 1st defendant in the suit is SPDC while Renaissance is the 2nd defendant. Also joined as co-defendants are the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice; Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited; Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission; and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The plaintiff, through its lead counsel, Kunle Adegoke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is also urging the court to make an order “restoring and/or reversing the purported act of divestment, assignment or transfer of the 1st defendant’s oil exploration licence to the 2nd defendant and its effect.”
The plaintiff claims that the mining licence transfer deal is in breach of several Nigerian laws, including the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021. It argued that the mining licence transfer deal is a ploy by Shell to evade its liabilities, considering the massive pollution of the Niger Delta arising from Shell’s decades of mining activities.
Related Posts
The plaintiff claims that Renaissance, a Nigerian consortium incorporated only in 2022, lacks both the experience and financial standing to continue with SPDC’s oil exploration licence in the upstream oil and gas sector while accusing the Nigerian authorities of compromise in the approval of the deal.
HEDA emphasises SPDC’s liability for 35% of the oil spills in the country, “making them accountable for approximately $4.2bn of the total amount assessed for the repair and clean-up of oil spills.”
Furthermore, HEDA alleges a lack of transparency in the deal, asserting that SPDC has also not shown Nigerians that it has assessed its environmental liability annually and increased its financial contributions as required by the law.
HEDA argued that given that SPDC has not cleaned up and managed the negative environmental impacts of its operations on the soil of Nigeria, as required by the law, the court should stop the Nigerian government from allowing Shell “to use the assignment of its interest to the 2nd defendant as an escape route to avoid due compliance with the laws, to the detriment of Nigerians”.
The plaintiff also referenced several environmental pollution lawsuits pending against Shell both in Nigerian and the United Kingdom, including a class action with 15,000 victims, urging the court to halt or nullify the mining licence transfer deal.
Punch reports that the lawsuits arose from SPDC’s “bad reputation for oil spillage and insufficient or absence of remediation and cleaning-up activities.”
