The High Court will judge whether members from two communities, Bille and Ogale in Rivers state, Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta region, can sue the Dutch company in British courts.
The communities say Nigerian courts are unfit to hear the case against Shell subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria meanwhile, Shell says the case should be heard in Nigeria because the matter is uniquely a Nigerian problem.
Shell has also denied responsibility for the spills, which it says were due to sabotage and illegal refining.
Oil rich communities in the Niger-Delta are always tied in Court litigations against Shell.
