Duality: Being Nigerian and working for a major oil company, an interview with Mr. Jev

Disclaimer: This is a phone interview with Mr Jev on his personal views on Shell and its role in Nigeria due to his experiences with the company. Mr Jev is no longer working for Shell and thus is not here as a representative of Shell and his opinions may or may not be in alignment with Shell’s current position.

Please note that this is a phone conversation and that there may be some echo in the audio.

Introduction
The combination of the words ‘Shell’ and ‘Nigeria’ has not had a happy few years in the media these last few years. The company often was in the news about the negative effects of the oil industry in the country. Topics such as oil leaks, environmental pollution and rebel sabotage of pipelines are what come to mind when one thinks of Shell in Nigeria. Especially in the Netherlands, the court case of the organisation Milieudefensie against Shell, about whether Shell has to be held responsible for the negative environmental impacts of their business, creates an image of the company.

Shell has long been present in Nigeria. The company arrived in 1937, and started extracting oil in the Niger Delta in the 1950s and has done so ever since. It holds the position of the largest fossil fuel company in the country and focuses on extracting and producing oil. The company has thousands of kilometres of pipelines

For this podcast, we were wondering what the point of view might be of someone who has worked for Shell, while also having personal connections to Nigeria, and how that has influenced their life and thinking on the problems Nigeria is faced with.

For us Nigerians … you never forget your roots. It’s with passion we look at the country and the sad situation that we find ourselves in in terms of the government not living up to its responsibilities.