Amnesty International has accused Shell of knowingly allowing environmental damage in Nigeria's Niger Delta to continue for years, citing newly disclosed internal company documents that allegedly expose failing infrastructure, weak safety standards and an estimated US$10.9 billion decommissioning liability.
The allegations are contained in a new report titled "Nigeria: Lifting the Lid," released by Amnesty International and a coalition of Nigerian and international environmental and human rights organisations.
The report is based on internal Shell emails, audits, technical reviews and presentations disclosed during ongoing legal proceedings in the United Kingdom.
According to the report, Shell continued operating ageing pipelines despite repeated internal warnings about their condition. One of the pipelines, the old Nembe Creek Trunk Line, was reportedly described by company officials as "a basket" because of its deteriorating state.
The report claims the pipeline remained filled with crude oil years after it was replaced, leading to multiple spills.
Amnesty also alleges that Shell exempted its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), from some of its global safety standards, allowing oil production to continue through pipelines that had been tampered with.
Internal documents further suggest senior officials were aware of weaknesses in leak detection systems, missing records for hundreds of oil wells, and significant maintenance backlogs.
The report says Shell's internal assessments questioned whether the company should continue producing oil while knowing additional environmental damage was likely.
It also alleges that some staff believed company employees or contractors may have been linked to oil theft, while concerns were raised by Nigerian security agencies over Shell's handling of illegal pipeline connections.
Amnesty argues that Shell's long-standing position that oil theft and sabotage were primarily responsible for pollution in the Niger Delta is undermined by the internal documents.
The report says weak spill monitoring systems may have affected how the causes of oil spills were classified, potentially influencing whether affected communities qualified for compensation under Nigerian law.
The rights group further claims that an internal 2014 estimate put the cost of decommissioning Shell's onshore oil infrastructure in Nigeria at US$10.9 billion, excluding environmental clean-up costs.
It says the company later sold its onshore business to Renaissance Africa Energy in 2025 despite concerns over the buyer's ability to manage the ageing assets and pollution liabilities.
Responding to Amnesty's findings, Shell rejected the allegations, saying the characterisation of the company in the report does not reflect its operations.
The company said it remains committed to conducting business with honesty, integrity and respect for people, adding that the report does not fully reflect the challenging operating environment in the Niger Delta during the period covered.
Amnesty International and its partners are calling on the Nigerian government to strengthen oversight of the oil industry, establish a properly funded Niger Delta clean-up programme, and ensure Shell is held accountable for environmental damage linked to its operations.
The organisations also urged authorities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to investigate whether Shell misled regulators, shareholders and affected communities about the state of its Nigerian operations.
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