The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed May 26, 2025, to hear a suit seeking to stop Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited’s deal transferring its mining licence to Nigerian consortium, Renaissance African Energy Company Limited.
The suit, marked FHC/L/CS/651/25, has been assigned to Justice A.L. Allagoa
The plaintiff, Incorporated Trustees of HEDA Resource Centre, claims that the mining licence transfer deal is in breach of several Nigerian laws, including the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021.
The plaintiff is particularly concerned about the long years of oil pollution resulting from SPDC’s activities in the Niger Delta, terming the mining licence transfer deal a ploy by Shell to evade its liabilities.
In January, Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings announced it had successfully completed the landmark transaction between itself and Shell for the acquisition of the entire equity holding in SPDC.
It said that with the deal, SPDC would now be renamed Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited.
With the $2.4bn deal, Shell moves its operations offshore.
However, HEDA, a human rights advocacy group, contends that SPDC, which has “on several occasions, been associated with widespread pollution as a result of its mining and exploration activities, cannot neglect or run away from its statutory duties by assigning its liability and assets to the 2nd defendant, who is an unqualified assignee.”
Listed as the 1st defendant is SPDC while Renaissance is the 2nd defendant.
Also joined as co-defendants are the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice; Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited; Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission; and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The plaintiff, through its lead counsel, Kunle Adegoke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is urging the court to make an order “restoring and or reversing the purported act of divestment, assignment or transfer of the 1st defendant’s oil exploration licence to the 2nd defendant and its effect.”
The plaintiff claims that Renaissance, a Nigerian consortium incorporated only in 2022, lacks both the experience and financial standing to continue with SPDC’s oil exploration licence in the upstream oil and gas sector while accusing the Nigerian authorities of compromise in the approval of the deal.
HEDA emphasises SPDC’s liability for 35% of the oil spills in the country, “making them accountable for approximately $4.2bn of the total amount assessed for the repair and clean-up of oil spills.”
Furthermore, HEDA alleges a lack of transparency in the deal, asserting that SPDC has also not shown Nigerians that it has assessed its environmental liability annually and increased its financial contributions as required by the law.
HEDA argued that given that SPDC has not cleaned up and managed the negative environmental impacts of its operations on the soil of Nigeria, as required by the law, the court should stop the Nigerian government from allowing Shell “to use the assignment of its interest to the 2nd defendant as an escape route to avoid due compliance with the laws, to the detriment of Nigerians”.
The plaintiff also referenced several environmental pollution lawsuits pending against Shell both in Nigerian and the United Kingdom, including a class action with 15,000 victims, urging the court to halt or nullify the mining licence transfer deal.
According to HEDA, the lawsuits arose from SPDC’s “bad reputation for oil spillage and insufficient or absence of remediation and cleaning-up activities.”
“Both the 1st and 2nd defendants are incompetent to carry out the assignment of any oil exploration licence or divestment, which has implications on national interest.
“It is necessary for this honourable court to immediately intervene as the defendants are set to lay a bad precedent in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of all Nigerians,” the plaintiff stated.
