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It's no question that Shell hasn't been the greatest friend to Nigeria. It was reported in May that oil spills in Nigeria were dwarfing the size of the Gulf spill.
The company has never taken responsibility for the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and it has touted social development projects in Nigeria that are a facade at best (a water tower it constructed, for example, "has not distributed a drop of anything because Shell did not dig a well or connect it to the water system at its plant," writes Peter Maass).
Now there's a flap over a UN investigation into how much oil has been spilled in the Niger Delta, and whom is to blame. Shell admitted to nearly 4.5 million gallons, or 14,000 tons, of oil spilled into the Delta last year, but much more than that is lost.
The Guardian reported on Sunday that "the $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence," and that the rest (90 percent) is due to sabotage.
The UN clarified after that story ran that the 90% was a Nigerian government number, and that UNEP was conducting its own, independent assessment.
Hopefully the independent description will hold up, despite that Shell is funding the assessment.
Whatever the outcome, there hasn't been much discussion of the culpability Shell might have in the situation that drives people to sabotage in the first place. Almost none of the oil revenues make it back to the Delta and indeed the problems there, like water pollution, are getting worse because of Shell's presence in the region.
Amnesty International is calling on the UN not to rely on questionable numbers, like the 90 percent. "Between 1989 and 1994 Shell itself estimated that only 28 percent of oil spilt in the Niger Delta was caused by sabotage," Amnesty writes.
Now that the number has jumped to 90 percent, Amnesty says it has asked Shell repeatedly for evidence supporting those estimates, but has gotten no replies.
Stay tuned to see what comes of the UNEP assessment.
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