Divestment to Renaissance: A Socio-Legal Betrayal of the Niger Delta.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Shell has finalized the $2.4 billion sale of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Renaissance Africa Energy Company, concluding its nearly century-long onshore operations in Nigeria. The transaction includes SPDC’s 30% stake in the SPDC Joint Venture, covering 18 oil mining leases, now operated by Renaissance, a consortium of Nigerian and international energy firms. Shell’s other Nigerian businesses, such as Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), Shell Nigeria Gas Limited (SNG), and its 25.6% stake in Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), were not part of the deal.
In the same light, the Federal High Court’s November 2023 rulings in Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/123/2022 and Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/124/2022 dismissed challenges by the Belema, Oloinama, Oko-ama, and Soku communities in Rivers State against Shell’s divestment of OML 25 and OML 23, respectively, highlighting the Petroleum Industry Act’s (PIA) failure to ensure community participation in divestments despite its goal of “peaceful co-existence” (section 234). The communities sought to block Shell’s divestment to Renaissance, demanding a 35% bid share and sale to Belema Oil Producing Limited, citing local sensitivity, but the court upheld Shell’s objections, ruling that the PIA, under section 95, grants communities only economic benefits through Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) without enforceable rights to influence divestments, leaving the Delta’s agrarian communities betrayed and their locus standi undermined by the lack of clear statutory backing.
The plaintiffs’ insistence that Shell sell its OML 25 interests solely to Belema Oil Producing Limited, while rooted in a desire to protect local interests, appears overly prescriptive, though contextually understandable given the Niger Delta’s history of ecological and social harm occasioned by multinationals. Yet, as Ronald Dworkin argues in Law’s Empire (1986), law must be interpreted as a coherent narrative of justice. Thus, the court’s failure to adopt a purposive approach on the issue of community participation ignores the PIA’s telos of community empowerment.
The PIA lacks clarity on historic liability for environmental damage, potentially allowing polluters to evade accountability. However, section 95(10) permits “third parties” to make representations during divestments, offering a legal avenue to include affected communities. A purposive interpretation could recognize communities as “third parties,” empowering them to influence divestments that exacerbate environmental harm in the Niger Delta. The PIA’s oversight of constitutional (section 33, 1999 Constitution) and African Charter (Article 24) environmental protections leaves communities vulnerable, despite the Delta’s severe degradation—oil spills, barren lands, and health crises. The Host Community Development Trust’s (HCDT) 3% levy is inadequate to address this “environmental genocide.” Renaissance’s acquisition risks perpetuating neglect unless communities, as key stakeholders, use section 95(10) to demand remediation. Excluding them could fuel unrest, undermining the PIA’s aim of fostering harmony.
Shell may have divested, but the battle for social and ecological justice in the Niger Delta is far from abandoned. As of June 20, 2025, the Federal High Court, Yenagoa, convened for the first hearing of the suit filed by His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV of Ekpetiama Kingdom and Chair of the Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, and others, against Shell, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and the Attorney General of the Federation. The plaintiffs argue that Shell’s planned divestment of its interest in SPDC without fulfilling its environmental obligations in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution and laws is illegal and unjust, and that the Nigerian state, through the Minister of Petroleum Resources, NUPRC, and the Attorney General, has failed in its duty to prevent such corporate evasion of responsibility — seeking incidental reliefs.
In the Niger Delta, where the river weeps oil, the fish flee poisoned waters and the bird’s wings melt from fire-up skies, Shell’s $2.4 billion divestment of its onshore subsidiary (SPDC) to Renaissance Consortium is a bitter milestone. The Lago Agrio litigation in Ecuador, spanning decades of Chevron’s evasion, warns of impunity absent clear liability frameworks. We must learn from time. Systemic change in this regard requires explicitly mandating environmental audits, community dialogue, and escrow funds for cleanup, embedding community voices in governance in the divestment process.
Justice, indeed, as Dworkin posits, is a matter of outcomes: a political decision causes injustice, however fair its procedures that produced it, when it denies people some resource, liberty, or opportunity that the best theories of justice entitle them to have. The word "Renaissance" usually implies a renewal or progress, but in the context of the Niger Delta, it risks becoming a symbol of decay and stagnation if not accompanied by a commitment to environmental remediation and community well-being.
