UN study on oil damage in Niger Delta draws criticism for relying on Shell data

And as residents in the Gulf continue to feel the effects of the massive BP oil disaster, another region of the world is struggling with ongoing damage from oil spills. In the Niger Delta in Western Africa nearly double the amount of oil that has spilled into the Gulf - or 9 million barrels - has been gushing into the region over the past half century, according to Amnesty International. Much of that is from Royal Dutch Shell.

Now, a UN report investigating damage from the spills is coming under fire. Community and environmental groups say that the UN's Environment Program has used figures from Shell Oil and the Nigerian government in order to put blame on local militants for the cause of the spills rather than the multinational corporation.

In a statement released on August 23, the UN agency doing the study acknowledged the figures come from Shell and Nigeria's government but say that they do not represent the results of the study, which is ongoing.

To find out more, we called Audrey Gaughran, she's the director of Amnesty International's Global Thematic Issues Program and joins us from London.