Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this era of globalization can be termed as an essential business cost for companies to achieve success in the long term. Hence to uphold the brand of CSR, corporations are not to neglect the environment that would tarnish their image. Royal Dutch Shell Plc is ranked seventh among the top global oil producing companies for year 2012 by Forbes (Christopher Helman 2012). Despite its prominent reputation and its claimed aim of achieving the worldwide energy demand in a responsible manner, it does negate the fact their business operations have impacted the environment of Nigeria. The pressing argument that will be discussed in this paper would be the interminable oil spills due to the defective facilities and insufficient checks of equipments which are identified as the one of the main sources of the environmental contamination by Shell in the Niger Delta, how these irresponsible activities have implicated the environment which leads to unfavourable circumstances for society and stakeholders such as institutional investors, and the efforts made by Shell to counteract the situation.
Background of Oil Spills in Niger Delta
Before Shell tapped on the Delta, the eastern area of Nigeria was resource wealthy. However what thought to be a profitable activity for the corporations as well as Nigerian people too turned out to be a severe environmental threat and has been evolving for a few decades since 1956. Shell did acknowledge that their operations have caused oil spills, but did not agree on the extent of it. Analysts have recorded that in the year 1995 to 2006, Shell has committed an average three hundred spills annually which results to more than four hundred fifty thousand barrels of oil ( Tuodolo 2009 , 537 ).
Bodo Oil Spills in 2008
The oil spill that occurred in Bodo town in 2008 was