HAMILTON - Global oil giant Shell - whose operations stretch from Holland to Nigeria and whose turnover last year was $NZ328 billion - is adding the Te Akau General Store to its massive empire.
The company agreed last Friday to buy the store, which sells groceries but not petrol, in the tiny north Waikato village, from Bill and Sharon Lee, who blame Shell for petrol pollution beneath their property.
The Lees battled Shell for compensation after petrol leaked from a storage tank into the land beneath their shop and home.
The petrol tanks were removed in February, which will leave Shell operating a small store selling bread and newspapers until it sells the site.
Shell offered to clean all the soil at the site for the Lees or buy the site for its market value of $365,000. But the Lees were holding out for an extra $100,000 each as compensation for health problems they blamed on the polluted soil.
The deal is due to be settled tomorrow so the Lees will not reveal details.
"Nothing's actually a done deal until we have the cheque in our hands," Mrs Lee said.
But Shell spokesman Antonius Papaspiropoulos said the company would stand by its word, taking the property off the Lees' hands and selling it later this year.
- NZPA
Shell empire-building down Te Akau way
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