Shell Nigeria sued for 6 billion euros in environmental damages

The Nigerian government is taking oil giant Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production to court and demanding just over 6 billion euros in compensation for damage caused by a major oil spill in 2011, Financieele Dagblad reports. The African country is demanding 884 billion Nigerian naira (3.9 billion euros) in compensation for damage the oil spill caused to local fishermen and villages, 495 billion naira (2.2 billion euros) to clean up and restore the region and 50 million naira (218 thousand euros) in compensation for legal fees. The Nigerian government describes the oil leak as a huge ecological and economic disaster for the region. In 2014 the Nigerian parliament already claimed about about 4 billion dollars in damages for the 2011 leak at the Bonga field. A government agency that tracks down oil spills later agreed with this demand, but it was not binding. According to Financieele Dagblad, the Nigerian government hopes to force Shell to pay compensation by dragging them to court.