Peter Voser – Shell Chief Executive
Royal Dutch Shell, PO Box 162,
2501 AN The Hague- The Netherlands.

Dear Sir,

Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta have serious human rights implications. I am particularly concerned about the health and environmental impacts of the practice of gas flaring, which has been prohibited in Nigeria since 1984 without ministerial permission. What is the reason for your delay on this matter, while you konw that gas flaring contributes significantly to climate change, at least your company and others have profited from the resource, while the government have exploited the oil wealth for more than 45 years, it is only the local communities (now densely populated region) that live daily with pollution caused by this non-stop gas flaring. Despite complaints from communities about damage to their health, lands and livelihoods, the practice remains widespread and no serious studies have been conducted into the impacts of gas flaring. The largest flaring operations in the world occur in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and it is no news that flaring and venting of natural gas from oil & gas wells is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. In spite of a ruling by the Federal High Court of Nigeria (that forbade flaring) in 2005, 43% of the gas retrieval are still being flared.

Dear Sir, the flaring of Gas Flaring and venting in the Niger Delta needs to end now; not been seeing now but the impact of your non-stop gas flaring, especially the associated gas which is made up of Carbon dioxide, Particulate matter, Sulfur dioxide, Nitrogen dioxides, Carcinogenic substances (such as benzapyrene and dioxin; and unburned fuel components (e.g. benzene, toluene, xylene, and hydrogen sulphide) and methane been flared for over four decades will sooner begin to tell on the masses. Flaring contributes to air pollution and, in turn poses serious health risks to the local communities. These substances, produced in tremendous amounts, can concentrate in the air to the point that nature can no longer cope; and many academic studies have shown that gas flaring has a strong bearing on human health causing acute respiratory infection, asthma, bronchitis, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and nervous system disorders and thus increases mortality and morbidity.

It is my strong believe that the flaring of Gas in the Niger Delta is affecting the people in the region, but you and  I know that this is not UK or US, and the  medical expertise to check-up the people or d verify this is still far from Nigeria. You definitely are aware that  researches have shown that health effects of such pollution manifested in the following: (a) incidences of cancer; frequency of symptomatic asthma attacks; (b)  incidences of lower respiratory infections; (c) exacerbations of disease in people with cardiopulmonary diseases; (d) hospitalization, both in frequency and duration; (e) number of visits to emergency ward or physician; (f) need for pulmonary medication; decreased pulmonary function; (g) prevalence or incidence of chest tightness; (h) prevalence of wheezing in the chest apart from colds; (i) incidences of cough or phlegm production;(j) incidences of acute upper respiratory infections, and (k)  eyes, nose and throat irritation. These entire problem are very prevalent in the Niger Delta, but beyond confirmation by the present state of our medical capability. It might do you good if you could sponsor our local institution to investigate and do some epidemiological studies into the relationship between gas flaring, mortality and morbidity in the Niger Delta. These are mere statistical research, and as such require fewer funds.

As a business man and an executive, you should know that  the impacts of gas flaring and venting in the Niger Delta results in an unbelievable loss of over 2 Bncf of gas flared daily, that could have easily been converted into a revenue of over $25 Million, if nor looted as usual. These are aside the economic impacts of neglect of communities giving them continuous day light and unbearable hypertensive noise. In addition, cessation of gas flares in Nigeria would have brought more revenue and automatic expansion of natural gas utilization and obviously increased income. However, while the federal government are dithering about, only one or two of the ongoing projects towards the eradication of gas flaring is fruitful. Also, it might do us good if you could remember the Kyoto Mechanisms for Flaring Reductions, or is it history? They promised to assist to overcome constraints on intended projects that will reduce gas flaring by designing innovative financing mechanisms. Hmmm, easier said than done? Please can you confirm sir, if all flare-out date, proposal, projects are nothing but political drum, after all, I think the already corrupt government, World Bank, your Oil and gas industries are better-off with the existing structure, and careless of the damaging effect to local communities?

As Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell I call on you to:

* Stop gas flaring in the Niger Delta in line with legislation and court rulings.
* Assess and make public the environmental, social and human rights impacts of your operations
* Fairly compensate local communities for the harm your operations have done to their health, lives and livelihoods

Rowland Adewumi,
Member, Amnesty International UK