A Dutch district court in the Hague has decided that it does in fact have jurisdiction to hear a case brought against Shell Nigeria (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) by four Nigerian farmers from the oil region and Friends of the Earth Netherlands, an environmental group. According to the Nigerian newspaper, The Daily Independent, the oil from a pipeline leaked onto their land and fish ponds and they want it cleaned up by Shell.
Shell contends that the leak was a result of sabotage which has happened frequently by militants, and by those seeking to steal (bunker) the oil and then sell it. They had also stated the Dutch court does not have jurisdiction, but that point now seems moot. Of course, this simple decision on jurisdiction is a long way from winning the case, but the plaintiffs had said that they could not get this far in Nigerian court.
(The non-jurisdiction defense appears to be blowing up in the faces of the multinational oil companies who try it, as it did most recently in Ecuador (versus Chevron) and in New York City (by the heirs of murdered Nigerian activist Ken Saro Wiwa). It is unclear what will happen if someday the defendant is a national oil company, like a Chinese company, or Statoil.)
Shell has until February to respond.
