Cape Town — British oil company Shell's increasing challenges with pipeline sabotage, lawsuits and environmental damages claims against subsidiary Shell Nigeria, may be some of the reasons for it to conclude nearly a century of operations in the Nigerian onshore oil and gas sectors.

The company has agreed to sell subsidiary Shell Nigeria to a consortium of five mostly local companies for up to U.S.$2.4 billion.

The British energy giant pioneered Nigeria's oil and gas business beginning in the 1930s, Reuters reports.

Since 2021, Shell has sought to sell its Nigerian oil and gas business but will remain active in Nigeria's more lucrative and less problematic offshore sector.

In May 2023, Amnesty International wrote in a report titled Tainted Sale that the Nigerian government should ensure that Shell's planned sale of its operations in the Niger Delta does not lead to a further deterioration in human rights in a region blighted by decades of oil pollution.