Nigeria has slapped a $5bn "administrative penalty" on Shell over an oil spill last year at the Bonga offshore field, but Shell through its spokesman said on Tuesday there was no basis for the fine.
Shell was forced to halt operations at the Bonga oilfield in the Gulf of Guinea following the leak on December 20 2011 that spilled about 40000 barrels of crude into the sea.
Nigerian authorities have levelled a $5bn fine on Shell’s local operation for the spill, Peter Idabor, the head of the state-run National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, told a parliamentary hearing on Monday.
Mr Idabor said the "administrative penalty" on Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (Snepco) was in line with international industry practice.
Although adequate containment measures were put in place to combat the Bonga oil spill, it however posed a serious environmental threat to the offshore environments," Peter Idabor said.
But Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said the fine was unwarranted as the company had acted quickly to contain the spill.
"We do not believe there is any basis in law for such a fine. Neither do we believe that Snepco has committed any infraction of Nigerian law to warrant such a fine," Mr Okonedo said.
"Snepco responded to the incident with professionalism and acted with the consent of the necessary authorities at all times to prevent environmental impact as a result of the incident," he added.
Shell can contest the penalty in court.
Officials said the incident was Nigeria’s worst offshore spill since a 1998 Mobil incident, although onshore leaks are a common occurrence in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Bonga, which has a capacity of 200000 barrels per day, is located about 120km off the coast of Nigeria
Africa’s largest oil producer and a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Nigeria has been producing between 2-million and 2,4-million barrels per day of crude in recent months
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