Shell: Oil Spill in Nigeria

Introduction

The natural environment is the total aggregate of all external tangible dimensions that affects the development of living things. In 2005, Shell started production at the giant Bonga offshore plant in Bodo Village, Nigeria. “In 2008 and 2009, a 55-year-old pipeline owned by Shell ruptured twice, throwing up 600,000 barrels, according to UK court claims, of crude oil into the surrounding creeks of the Niger Delta” (Daisy 2017). As a result, Shell would be responsible for this problem. Moreover, this is an ethical issue which involves the environment as well as the company response time. The ethical consideration related to this decision is not acceptable for people, government and environment in Nigerian because it caused the contamination of the soil, water, animal and people.

Report Body

In 2008, Shell has an oil spill about ten thousand barrels of oil are spilt because by operational faults, which affects to the community of Bodo in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta. Oil spillage cause gross chemical and biological impairment to plants and animals and contributes to ecological changes as a result of deleterious or toxic effect on community member. After that happened, Shell did not respond to the situation immediately; they delayed the process of clean up after ten years of spilling the oil.

The stakeholders did not on respond how to take care the environment because it costs a lot of money to clean up the process. Shell tried to avoid that situation as long as they could. First cleaning up the environment costs a billion of dollar. Second, it affected the capacity of the company and relationship of the shareholders that they are invested in the company. The company will go downstream because of the cost of doing the cleanup process, and finally, the process of cleaning the environment is taking a long time because the amount of oil spilled. About 11,000 Nigerian from Bodo launch a suit against Shell in the London High court. The court required Shell to responsible on their action in Nigeria. In 2015, Shell accepts liability for the Bodo spills to clean up the land and waterways (Bousso, 2018). Because of the shell respond to the oil spill late it could cause the shareholders’ dollar at risk, the investigators expose in several countries and could be cancelled of all the contract that Shell make a contract in other location in the world (Oliver, 2015).

The organization’s action act is not ethical because Shell did not want to pay for the cleanup process, and they do not want to disappoint shareholders who put a lot of dollar for the Shell investment. Due to the oil spill which contaminated water and soil in Nigeria, Shell was irresponsible for their action. They are negligent against Nigeria as a country. The pollution in Nigeria have prevented people from do anything with the water and soil. They would not do any further actions if the Nigerian government and people did not sue Shell in London Court House. For this reason, Shell failure to act ethically cause pollution to the environment.

Conclusion

Oil spill because of raw petroleum burglary could harm living things in Nigeria due to delay response to the situation which shows Shell lack of responsibility and ethicality. Shell took too long to clean up the environment in Nigeria. The organization should have done differently by cleaning oil as soon as possible because oil is dangerous and hurts the environment where it was spilled, influencing the natural life. It is vital to tidy up oil slicks rapidly to restrain the harm to nature. In the retrospect, the expense of cleaning up the oil would have been lower because it would not have spread further and the environment in Nigeria would not be getting worse. If they clean up earlier, Nigerian people would not be facing health problems, and the resource would not be polluted, and agriculture would boost Nigerian economic.                    

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