A cache of internal documents recently disclosed in legal proceedings in the UK against fossil fuel major, Shell Plc have lifted the lid on its negligent and polluting operations in the Niger Delta.

The documents – which include email exchanges between senior executives and confidential audits – were released after campaigning groups, including HEDA, applied for their publication on public interest grounds.

The documents were cited in legal documents in a case brought by two Nigerian communities against Shell in the UK.

The two communities, Bille and Ogale, claim that Shell failed to prevent and then remediate devastating oil pollution over many years.

The documents’ content vindicates the long-standing complaints of people living in the Niger Delta, as well as research by human rights and environmental justice groups that a significant cause of the pollution lies in Shell’s failure to properly maintain the vast network of wells and pipelines operated by what was then its Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

HEDA is making them available in the public interest.