Shell will sell big piece of its Nigeria oil business, but activists want pollution cleaned up first

ABUJA, Nigeria — Shell said Tuesday it agreed to sell its onshore business in Nigeria’s Niger Delta to a consortium of companies in a deal worth $2.4 billion, the latest move by the energy company to limit its exposure in the West African nation amid long-running complaints of environmental pollution caused by the oil industry. “This agreement marks an important milestone for Shell in Nigeria, aligning with our previously announced intent to exit onshore oil production in the Niger Delta,” Zoe Yujnovich, Shell’s integrated gas and upstream director, said in a statement. Activists in the Niger Delta, where Shell has faced decadeslong local criticism to its oil exploration, plan to ask the government to withhold its approval if the company does not address its environmental damage. Shell told AP in a statement that the sale has been designed to preserve the company’s role to “conduct any remediation as operator of the joint venture where spills may have occurred in the past from the joint venture’s operations.” If the transaction is approved, Shell will still have at least three subsidiary operations in Nigeria, namely, its Gulf of Guinea deep-water operations, an industrial gas business and solar power for industrial activities.