Archived press release

Court case result - Oil companies ordered to stop gas flaring in Nigeria

14 November 2005

In a historic judgment today, the Federal High Court of Nigeria has ordered companies to stop gas flaring in the Niger Delta, as it violates guaranteed constitutional rights to life and dignity. In a case brought against the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (Shell), Justice C. V. Nwokorie ruled in Benin City that the damaging and wasteful practice of flaring by all the major companies, including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, TotalFinaElf and Agip, as well as Shell, in joint ventures with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, cannot lawfully continue and must stop.

Nigeria has been the world's biggest gas flarer, and the practice has contributed more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined, as well as poisoning localities with their toxic cocktail. The practice costs Nigeria about US$2.5 billion annually, while about 66% of its population live on less than US$1 a day.

The judge also declared the Nigerian gas flaring law to be unconstitutional, and ordered the Attorney General to meet with the Federal Executive Council (the country's highest executive body, including the President, Vice President and Ministers) in order to bring the law into line with present day practice, rules and regulations governing oil and gas activities.

The case was brought by Mr Jonah Gbemre, on behalf of himself and the Iwerekan community in Delta State, supported by Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and the Climate Justice Programme

Reverend Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, commented:

"For the first time, a court of competence has boldly declared that Shell, Chevron and the other oil corporations have been engaged in illegal activities here for decades. We expect this judgement to be respected and that for once the oil corporations will accept the truth and bring their sinful flaring activities to a halt."

"This victory marks a new dawn in the struggle of the communities of the Niger Delta to have these flares of hell switched off. For the first time there is a hope that children here can hope to have a dark, quiet night,enjoy the chirps of birds and rest their ear drums from the awful noise of these gas flares."

Peter Roderick, co-Director of the Climate Justice Programme, said:

"This is a landmark judgment. We applaud the courage of the judge in giving a clear message that flaring is an outdated practice that is not acceptable in Nigeria. We also applaud the court's decision to apply rights guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution to an environmental case for the first time in Nigeria, in line with other countries."

Notes

This action was filed in the summer and permission was granted to Mr Gbemre to bring his case on 21 July 2005. The case is one of a number of cases brought by Niger Delta communities to stop gas flaring. A fact sheet on Nigerian gas flaring is below. A report published by the Climate Justice Programme and Environmental Rights Action, `Gas Flaring in Nigeria: A human rights, environmental and economic monstrosity', is available here, in both HTML and PDF versions:
http://www.climatelaw.org/media/gas.flaring/report/

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria is dedicated to the defence of human ecosystems in terms of human rights, and to the promotion of environmentally responsible governmental, commercial, community and individual practice in Nigeria through the empowerment of local people: www.eraction.org.

The Climate Justice Programme is an initiative hosted by Friends of the Earth International. It aims to encourage and support the enforcement of the law internationally to combat climate change. Over 70 organisations and lawyers are signatories to its Statement of Support, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF and organizations based in developing countries: www.climatelaw.org.

Nigerian gas flaring fact sheet

1. How much gas is flared in Nigeria?

More gas is flared in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. The gas industry statistics publisher, Cedigaz, indicates that Nigeria accounted for 19.79% of global flaring in 2001 (latest year), more than the second (Iran) and third (Indonesia) countries combined: see Statistical Leaflet available here: www.cedigaz.org.

The UNDP/World Bank in 2004 estimated Nigerian flaring at close to 2.5 billion cubic feet daily (over 70 million cubic metres daily), amounting to about 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004), paragraph 2.5.

2. Some of the effects of flaring in Nigeria

The cocktail of toxic substances which has been emitted in the flares for over 40 years, including benzene and particulates, has exposed Niger Delta communities to health risks and property damage, in violation of their human rights.

The flares affect their livelihood and expose them to an increased risk of premature deaths, child respiratory illnesses, asthma and cancer, as well as acid rain. For example, conservative assumptions using World Bank information on the adverse effect of particulates, suggests that gas flaring from just one part of the Niger Delta (Bayelsa State) would likely cause annually 49 premature deaths, 4,960 respiratory illnesses among children and 120, asthma attacks.

This exposure violates Nigerian constitutional guarantees, for example, of the fundamental rights to life (Article 33) and to dignity (Article 34). It also violates the rights guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, for example, of every individual to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health (Article 16) and of all peoples to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development (Article 24).

Flaring in the country "has contributed more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined" according to the World Bank.

Memorandum of the President of the International Development Association and the International Finance Corporation to the Executive Directors on an Interim Strategy Update for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, February 13, 2002, Report No. 23633- UNI, paragraph 15.

The UNDP/World Bank figure of 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would have made Nigeria the world's 42nd biggest emitter of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and cement manufacture in 2000, ahead of Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway.

This ranking is obtained from the World Resources Institute's Climate Analysis Indicators Tool, available here: http://cait.wri.org.

3. What's the cost of gas flaring in Nigeria?

The annual financial loss to Nigeria from gas flared has been put at about US $2.5 billion:

"[F]laring represents a significant economic loss (lost opportunity value estimated at some US$2.5 billion, based on LNG values)." Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004), page 13, paragraph 1.13.

At the same time, about two-thirds of the population are estimated by the World Bank to live on less than US $1 a day:

"GNP per capita, at about US$320, is below the level at independence forty years ago and below the US$370 that it gained in 1985. About 66 percent of the population now falls below the poverty line of roughly one U.S. dollar a day, compared to 43 percent in 1985."

World Bank Nigeria Country Briefing, April 2005

4. What do the regulations say?

Apart from human rights law, flaring has been in general prohibited under environmental regulations since 1st January 1984, unless a ministerial consent has been lawfully issued and conditions are complied with. Under section 3 of the Associated Gas Reinjection Act 1979, a consent can only be issued if the Minister is satisfied that utilization or reinjection is not appropriate or feasible in a particular field or fields. If a consent is issued, the Minister is empowered to require the companies

to pay a sum (reported in 2002 to be 10 Naira per million cubic feet (about 4 UK pence or 7 US cents), and under the Associated Gas Re-injection (Continued Flaring of Gas) Regulations 1984 certain conditions must be met. Despite requests by Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, no consents or conditions have been disclosed by any of the companies.

Fact Sheet produced by the Climate Justice Programme and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, June 2005

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