By Onome Amawhe November 9 , 2021<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s oldest oil well stopped gushing black gold a half-century ago, but it is still producing legal actions, tribal conflict,\u00a0wild conspiracy theories, accusations of environmental exploitation \u2014 and bad press.\u00a0Royal Dutch Shell<\/a>\u00a0sits in the middle of it.<\/p>\n Some lawsuits facing Shell, a publicly traded Dutch company based in The Hague, spring from a well that died before many of its lawyers, accountants and PR executives were born.<\/p>\n Oloibiri Well No. 1 is at the crossroads of everything that can go wrong with corporate communications strategies practiced by today\u2019s multinational corporations, say American, Dutch and Nigerian critics. Its history is a list of strategic landmines for C-Suite executives to cringe at.<\/p>\n Several old fights still rage at the old, dry well. Two Nigerian towns claim ownership of the land it sits on, and dispute the well\u2019s very name. Environmental activists and some locals accuse Shell of polluting nearby land and disrupting native cultures.<\/p>\n Shell formed its first company in Nigeria in 1936, then known as\u00a0Shell D\u2019Arcy<\/a>\u00a0and since rechristened the\u00a0Shell Petroleum Development Company<\/a>\u00a0of Nigeria.\u00a0The company\u2019s explorers, interrupted by world war and independence movements, found oil in 1956. Oloibiri Well No. 1, the country\u2019s first commercially viable oil well, last produced oil in 1978.\u00a0 Shell in Nigeria still owns it.<\/p>\n More than 375 miles southeast of Lagos, it\u2019s still marked with weather-worn sign reading: \u201cOloibiri Well No. 1, drilled June 1956, 12,008 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n All sides agree on where the well is located, and on its corporate ownership history.\u00a0Beyond that, stories told by the feuding parties fragment.<\/p>\n Shell first came to the Eastern Niger Delta with a license, granted by Nigeria\u2019s government, to prospect for oil in all parts of the country. Oloibiri was the district headquarters in Nigeria\u2019s Eastern Region at the time, according to residents who spoke to Zenger. Shell won\u2019t confirm this, telling Zenger to ask government officials.<\/p>\n These local residents allege that as Shell searched for oil, elites in Oloibiri persuaded company executives\u00a0to name the well after their community. This demand, if it was made, was granted.<\/p>\n Likely, the name was a non-issue at the time, said tribal leader Sere Kokumo, 76. \u201cOloibiri was the district headquarters of the Ogbia area when oil was discovered here in 1956,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a result, whatever that arrived in the area was directed to the district headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n But inhabitants of a nearby rustic community called Otuabagi have long believed they are \u201cthe true owner of the Oloibiri oil fields,\u201d said Kokumo, \u201cThe elites of Oloibiri were cunning and formed a collaboration with Shell. As a result, they were able to sway the well\u2019s name in their favor. We have since been trying to correct this historical distortion.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oloibiri and the Otuabagi continue to argue over the name of the dead well 65 years later. Shell has not offered to rename it or explain the name\u2019s history, feeding the regional conflict. The company told Zenger to direct \u201cboundary and related questions\u201d to government authorities.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to know whether Oloibiri elites actually influenced the naming of the well, according to Belema Akoriadu, an Oloibiri native and local historian. \u201cDue to Oloibiri\u2019s administrative power over the neighboring villages, including Otuabagi, naming the well after the district headquarters, as Shell did, was sensible,\u201d he told Zenger.<\/p>\n \u201cBesides, Otuabagi was a backwater place inside the Oloibiri domain at the time and only came to prominence years after Shell began exploration,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was afterward that people from all walks of life flocked to the area in quest of greener pastures as a result of the flurry of activity that erupted around the place.\u201d<\/p>\n A campaign to rename the well took off when oil prices rose in 2007\u00a0and Otuabagi natives anticipated Shell\u2019s return. As it happened, the company didn\u2019t come back. The Shell Petroleum Development Company joint venture ended its oil and gas exploration and production in Oloibiri decades ago. It sold its stake in the Oloibiri oil field in 2014.<\/p>\n Separate from bragging rights over the well\u2019s name, the feud between Oloibiri and Otabagi reflects the stark contrast between poor Nigerian\u00a0villages sitting on vast oil deposits and the politically connected few who collect the royalties.<\/p>\n Village people have gained little from decades of oil exploration on their territory. They resent how Nigeria shares its oil wealth\u00a0\u2014 or doesn\u2019t \u2014 with its people. Shell is caught in the crossfire and absorbs much of the blame., but says that \u201cRevenue allocation is the sole prerogative of government authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n Some tribal elders, nostalgic for fields thick with maize and nets full of fish, regret the arrival of oil prospectors three generations ago. \u201cIn the years since oil drilling commenced in this community, we have since retrogressed in every facet of our lives,\u201d said Pere Akugbaju, a local chief.<\/p>\n The oil industry is largely gone now, but it left a dual legacy: water pollution and a taste for luxuries that oil dividends once made possible. Both serve to lure people away from traditional agriculture and fishing. \u201cEven though the relics and pollutants related with oil exploration were still visible in the community, promises made by previous administrations to improve the area and give it a befitting status remain unfulfilled,\u201d said Akugbaju.<\/p>\n Shell points to elected officials and bureaucrats to answer \u201cquestions on alleged unfulfilled promises.\u201d<\/p>\n Some observers blame Shell for the tribal divisions, which are as ancient as the Niger river itself.<\/p>\n