The High Court in London is set to deliver a crucial judgment on Friday, June 20, 2025, in a high-profile environmental lawsuit filed by two Nigerian communities—Bille and Ogale— against oil giant Shell.
The ruling will determine whether Shell can be held legally accountable for decades of devastating oil pollution in the Niger Delta.
The judgment, expected at 10:30 a.m. and to be delivered by Mrs. Justice May, follows a preliminary trial held between February 13 and March 7, 2025.
The outcome is poised to shape the scope of a full trial scheduled for March 2027 and could significantly influence how multinational parent companies are held liable for environmental damage caused by their foreign subsidiaries.
The case—one of the most consequential environmental lawsuits brought against a UK-based multinational— alleges that hundreds of oil spills from Shell’s pipelines and infrastructure have poisoned water sources, destroyed livelihoods, and posed serious public health risks in the affected communities.
The two Niger Delta communities, with a combined population of around 80,000 people, are demanding clean-up and compensation.
At issue in Friday’s ruling are several key legal questions which are whether Shell can be held liable for pollution from “legacy sites” that have not been cleaned up; whether the company bears responsibility for damage caused by oil theft (known as bunkering) and illegal artisanal refining if it failed to protect its infra- structure adequately; and whether the pollution constitutes a violation of the communities’ fundamental human rights under the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The plaintiffs are rep- resented by UK law firm Leigh Day, which has been pursuing the case since a landmark 2021 Supreme Court ruling allowed it to proceed in the UK.
That ruling found there was a “good arguable case” that Shell plc, the UK-based parent company, could be held responsible for environmental harm caused by its Nigerian subsidiary, formerly known as SPDC and now renamed Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited.
Despite Shell’s legal defence that it bears no responsibility for the pollution; the company has acknowledged its obligation to clean up contaminated sites in line with international standards. However, the claimants argue that Shell has failed to act meaningfully, even as the corporation posted a record $40 billion in global profits in 2022.
Regardless of Friday’s decision, the legal process will continue, with a full trial of individual and community claims from Bille expected in late 2026.
Case management steps— including the selection of lead claimants and disclosure of key documents— will take place throughout 2025. The judgment will be published on the Royal Courts of Justice daily cause list on June 20.
Following a landmark 2021 UK Supreme Court ruling, law firm Leigh Day has been preparing legal action on behalf of the Ogale and Bille communities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta against Shell plc.
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