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Shell Nigeria

Shell Nigeria
In 1958 the Royal Dutch/Shell Group started drilling for, transporting and refining
oil in Nigeria. Nigeria's large supply of high quality crude oil helped Shell climb to the top,
by 1994 Shell made more money than other company in the world. Everything changed for
Shell in 1996 when the world became aware of their unethical business practices in
Nigeria. Shell had raped the environment, violated human rights of the Nigerian people
and manipulated local governments for profit.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Nigeria
Royal Dutch/Shell Group is the most successful large corporation in the world. In
1994 it recorded profits of nearly 6.2 billion dollars on revenues of 94.9 billion. Shell, a
British import and export company, began in the oil business in 1907 when it merged with
Royal Dutch Petroleum. In the 1930's Shell started exploring for oil in Africa. It was not
until 1956 that they found oil, one of the largest reserves in the world, in the delta region
of Nigeria. While Nigeria was still under British rule, in 1958, Shell started oil production,
setting up drilling facilities, pipelines and refineries.
Nigeria gained freedom from British rule in 1960 and have struggled for identity.
Like most eastern countries that rely on one source of income Nigeria has had major
economical turmoil. Since 1970 the country has suffered through seven military coups,
several of which were bloody. Several attempts have been made at democracy with each
being overturned by a military coup. In the 70's the Shagari government tried to use oil
income to fund an ambitious economic development program called "green revolution".
The largest focus was to lower the amounts of their main imports, food, textiles and
manufactured goods, by producing them internally. The philosophy worked until the price
of oil plummeted. Cutting their budget from 20 to10 billion, this resulted in a massive
recession that caused a bloody military coup in 1990....