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<p>An aide to Nigeria Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has been shot dead by unknown persons; this as INEC postpones elections to next week. Charles Aniagwu, Chief Pres Secretary from Delta State joins CNBC Africa for an update on what’s happening in the State.</p>


Aide to Nigeria Delta State governor shot dead

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<p>Sven Richter, Fund Manager at Drakens Capital joins CNBC Africa to look at Zimbabwe’s investment outlook for 2019.</p>


If you have the stomach for risk, this #Zimbabwe company is worth looking at

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<p>Sven Richter, Fund Manager at Drakens Capital joins CNBC Africa to look at Zimbabwe’s investment outlook for 2019.</p>


Why a new currency in #Zimbabwe may not fix the economy

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<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; A court in London will decide in coming weeks whether Royal Dutch Shell can face trial in the UK over oil spill allegations in Nigeria, a decision some legal experts predict could attract more cases against multinationals in Britain.</p>
<p>The High Court will judge whether members from two communities, Bille and Ogale in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-rich Delta region, can sue the Anglo-Dutch company in British courts.</p>
<p>The communities say Nigerian courts are unfit to hear the case against Shell subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). Shell says the case should be heard in Nigeria because the matter is “uniquely a Nigerian problem”.</p>
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<p>Shell also denies responsibility for the spills, which it says were due to sabotage and illegal refining.</p>
<p>If the High Court rules in favour of the communities, some legal experts say other claimants against British-based multinationals would be emboldened to pursue legal action through the British courts.</p>
<p>Some legal experts also warned that a victory by the communities could encourage unscrupulous residents to let oil spills worsen at remote sites by denying clean-up access, as payouts are often linked to the scale of the damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;This case brings home the message that multinationals may increasingly face claims in the English courts arising from disputes which have little or no connection to England,&#8221; said Tom Cummins, a partner at law firm Ashurst.</p>
<p>The Bille and Ogale groups launched their claim just months after Shell agreed a 55 million pound ($68 million) settlement in 2015 with another Nigerian group, the Bodo community.</p>
<p>That case covered two pipeline leaks in 2008, which Shell accepted were its fault due to corrosion, and marked the largest ever out-of-court settlement relating to Nigerian oil spills. Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the Bille and Ogale communities and also brought the Bodo case in London against Shell, says Nigeria&#8217;s court system is not robust enough to give a fair ruling in reasonable time.</p>
<p>Leigh Day, which is licensed only to practise in Britain, has also raised concerns over whether companies will conduct clean-up operations properly without international pressure.</p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got a dual problem: the systemic ineffectiveness of the courts and the fact that people (in local communities) just can&#8217;t get the evidence together or even representation to take on these companies,&#8221; Daniel Leader, partner at Leigh Day, told Reuters.</p>
<p>For its part, the Nigerian government’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency defended the effectiveness of the Nigerian court system, saying it had successfully sanctioned and sued several companies locally, including SPDC.</p>
<p>Shell said it settled the Bodo case in part because it admitted responsibility for the spill, but never agreed that the case should be tried in London.</p>
<p>It said it would fight to stem a potential landslide of cases from groups whose lands Shell says were spoiled by sabotage, oil theft and illegal refining that are endemic across the Delta.</p>
<p>&#8220;We fully intend to have this (jurisdictional issue) decided by a trial judge, to determine the issue once and for all,&#8221; said Gaurav Sharma, senior legal counsel for Shell&#8217;s global litigation team.</p>
<p>Shell said 92 percent of all oil spilled from SPDC facilities in 2009-13 was a result of theft, sabotage or illegal refining.</p>
<p>In part due to such attacks, the oil major is divesting pipelines and other onshore assets after more than 50 years of operations in Nigeria.</p>
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<p>FEW GOOD SOLUTIONS The Bodo case was hailed by some as a victory for communities, but more than eight years after the spill, the clean-up has not yet begun.</p>
<p>Shell paid the agreed damages, but said the community denied it access in August 2015 when work was set to begin – asking instead for cash to do it themselves.</p>
<p>Barisi Kkabe, a Bodo youth leader, told Reuters the community was unhappy with the contractor picked by Shell, and &#8220;out of fear that (the clean-up fund) may be misappropriated, decided that &#8230; they should share it among the people&#8221;.</p>
<p>An SPDC spokesman said the company was unable to meet the Bodo community’s request to distribute clean-up work to local contractors because it was “not procedurally correct”.</p>
<p>A United Nations Environmental Programme report into oil pollution in Nigeria’s Ogoniland said communities should avoid protracted negotiations over access to spill sites as delays result in far greater environmental damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;Communities deserve compensation for damages when it&#8217;s Shell&#8217;s fault,&#8221; said Aaron Sayne of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises nations on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources without financial links to the oil industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be easy for a foreign court to get its head around how complicated it is.&#8221;</p>
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<p>(Additional reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, Nigeria; Editing by Dale Hudson)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

<p>Nigeria launched a $10 billion infrastructure programme on Thursday in its restive Delta region as part of a plan to end an insurgency that has hobbled oil production.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari will meet representatives of militant groups and community leaders from the Niger Delta in Abuja next week in a bid to end the attacks, Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said.</p>
<p>Speaking to a forum in Abuja aimed at outlining strategy for the petroleum industry, Kachikwu described bringing the insurgency to an end as the first goal of a seven-point plan.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our target is to ensure zero militancy in the area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This planned meeting shows the level of interest the president has to ensure peace in the area.&#8221;</p>
<p>The $10 billion investment is &#8220;not necessarily&#8221; going to come from the federal government, but rather from &#8220;oil companies, investors, individuals&#8221;, he said.</p>
<p>Militants fighting for a greater share of the OPEC member&#8217;s wealth complain of poverty and a lack of development across the Niger Delta region, where most of Nigeria&#8217;s oil is pumped.</p>
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<p>NATIONAL IMPERATIVE</p>
<p>The seven-part strategy also envisages passing a long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill by December. The bill, which covers everything from an overhaul of state oil company NNPC to taxes on upstream projects, was delayed by violence in the Delta, which at one point cut production to 30-year lows.</p>
<p>The first part of the bill is already pending in the senate, and Kachikwu said the second part, which deals with fiscal aspects of the petroleum industry, is &#8220;almost completed&#8221; and will be presented to the oil industry in the next week or two.</p>
<p>While the government has emphasized diversifying the economy, Buhari said on Thursday it would be impossible to move forward without the oil industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;Oil and gas resources still remain the most immediate and practical keys out of our present economic crisis,&#8221; Buhari said, and the plan for the industry is &#8220;a national imperative and a core thrust of our economic policy&#8221;.</p>
<p>To drum up financing and oil investments, Nigeria will hold a roadshow in the Gulf in January and in the United States by mid-2017, Kachikwu told reporters.</p>
<p>One area of investment would be in improving outdated refineries to stop costly fuel imports, he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are going to be licensing private refineries, to look at investing in private refineries.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kachikwu said Nigeria&#8217;s oil output stood at 1.8 million barrels a day, compared with the 1.9 million bpd the Petroleum Ministry announced earlier this week. Still, he added that the government hoped to get back to 2.2 million bpd next year &#8211; the level seen at the start of 2016.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have a capacity to produce 3 million,&#8221; he said.</p>
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<p><em>(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Ulf Laessing, writing by Libby George; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood)﻿</em></p>
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Delta

Aide to Nigeria Delta State governor shot dead

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Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

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Delta

Aide to Nigeria Delta State governor shot dead

If you have the stomach for risk, this #Zimbabwe company is worth looking at

Why a new currency in #Zimbabwe may not fix the economy

Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

Nigeria's $10bn infrastructure programme to tackle insurgency in oil delta

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