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Shell executives allowed oil thieves to tap pipelines in Nigeria and continued operations to protect company profits, knowing full well that their decision would cause severe environmental damage.
According to a joint report by Amnesty International and rights groups released Wednesday, internal audits and emails reveal that senior Shell officials chose to keep tapped pipelines running on a stop-start basis despite rampant crude theft and widespread pollution in the Niger Delta.
The internal documents, uncovered during ongoing lawsuits by local Nigerian communities, directly challenge Shell’s claims of corporate separation from its local subsidiary.
In a 2013 internal presentation, executives explicitly questioned whether the company should continue producing while knowing further environmental damage would occur.
Ultimately, Shell prioritised revenue over environmental protection, shutting down pipelines only after pollution levels breached specific thresholds.
Shell denied the allegations on Wednesday, stating that the report selectively quoted internal documents to create a misleading impression.
The findings come after Shell officially exited its onshore Nigerian operations in 2025 by selling its subsidiary to Renaissance, a consortium of local companies.
Critics accuse Shell and other oil majors of abandoning onshore fields for offshore sites to evade accountability for decades of severe environmental degradation.
