Royal Dutch/Shell, the company which produces about half of Nigeria's 2m barrels a day in Nigeria, this week announced investment plans of $8.5 billion in new oil and gas projects. But in the eyes of of most delta people, Shell has a terrible reputation, synonymous with the Nigerian government and army. It used, at least until 1995, to rely on the government to look after the locals (even though it knew that nothing was done) and it was happy to use Nigerian security forces to protect its installations. It even admits to supplying them with weapons. When oil was split, it paid off the local chief. This helped to create a "compensation culture" : damage a pipeline, then demand cash for the damaged land.