Amnesty International has accused major oil companies, including Shell Petroleum, of making false claims on Niger oil spills that caused an appalling environmental impact on the region.

The London-based rights group in its new report rejected claims by the companies that most of the oil they lose in the region is due to theft, not to slipshod operations and mismanagement.

Amnesty says it has evidence showing Shell's cover-up of the volume of oil spills.

“We’ve found evidence that sometimes they don’t even take basic security measures to protect their infrastructure. But there are standards - internationally accepted standards - that Nigerian law requires oil companies adhere to,” said Amnesty International’s director of global issues, Audrey Gaughran on Thursday.


The Anglo-Dutch company should compensate civilians affected by the spills if it is proven that it has been the cause of the pollution, he said.

“People rarely get compensated because the vast majority of the spills are attributed to sabotage or theft of oil, and it does a lot of damage to people’s livelihoods - to their farms and their fisheries. They get no compensation at all for that,” Gaughran said.

Amnesty International says other oil giants are also involved, adding they declare what caused their losses based on manipulated investigations that produce reports that are “deeply suspect and often untrue.”

The spills have mainly polluted the environment and food products.

According to Amnesty, there have been hundreds of spills in the Niger Delta in this year alone.

Shell, the largest onshore operator in the delta, has reported 348 spills since the start of 2012, while the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Italian company ENI, has reported nearly 1,000 over the same period, it added.

Oil spills have cause hunger for many of the roughly 30 million people who live in the Niger Delta, especially those who rely on farming or fishing.