Alame & Ors v Shell Plc & Anor

Facts

The Bille and Ogale Group Litigation comprises five sets of claims brought in the King's Bench Division by Nigerian claimants against Shell plc (formerly Royal Dutch Shell plc) and Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited (formerly The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria), arising out of oil pollution in the Niger Delta. The applicable law is Nigerian law. The parties agreed to a trial of preliminary issues, directed at settling the Nigerian law framework for the litigation going forward, including the operation of section 11(5) of the OPA in relation to spills caused by third party interference, the availability of common law claims for damage from non-pipeline assets, and the viability of the claimants' fundamental rights claims. May J heard that trial and handed down the preliminary issues judgment earlier in 2025 ([2025] EWHC 1539), holding among other things that the fundamental rights claims could not succeed, the right to life under article 33 being capable of engagement by oil pollution only in claims against states and not against private companies. The background is also set out in the Court of Appeal's judgment of the previous year ([2024] EWCA Civ 1500). The matter came before the court at a two-day case management conference to settle the consequential order, the fate of the fundamental rights claims, costs, and directions on disclosure, expert evidence, costs budgeting and the trial timetable.