The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) says the allegations in a Dutch Television documentary that its staff were involved in pipeline vandalism for personal gains lacks evidence.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that a Dutch Television in a documentary produced in collaboration with an environmental rights group, Milieudefensie, and aired on Thursday alleged that staff of SPDC benefit from vandalism of assets.
Reacting to the alleged complicity of staff, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, SPDC’s Media Relations Manager told NAN on Friday that there was no report of any staff involved in vandalism before it adding that when there was any evidence, the oil firm would investigate it.
“SPDC does not have any formal report of named SPDC staff members or contractors involved in pipeline vandalism or crude oil theft.
“SPDC, like other Shell companies globally, investigates all credible reports it receives of misconduct or unethical behaviour and takes robust action where evidence exists,” Odugbesan said.
The Shell spokesperson explained that SPDC had multiple ways the public could report allegations of wrongdoing by anyone working for SPDC, including a telephone helpline available round the clock and a dedicated email address.
He said the company monitored its facilities while any incident or suspected criminal activities were promptly reported to the regulators and government security agencies for investigation and possible prosecution.
According to him, as part of measures adopted to discourage host communities from tampering with SPDC assets in their communities, clean up jobs are not given to community contractors if the leak was traced to sabotage.
He noted that as a policy the oil firm did not pay compensation for spills found to have resulted from sabotage activities.
“All spills are assessed by a government-led joint investigation team.
“Where sabotage is established, the clean-up contract is not awarded to contractors from the host community to ensure that possible accomplices do not benefit from such activities.
“SPDC cleans up and remediates areas impacted by spills that come from its operations, irrespective of cause of spill,” Odugbesan said.
