NIGERIA: Oil giant ExxonMobil ordered to pay for spill

The US-based oil giant ExxonMobil has been ordered to pay three Niger Delta communities 1.4 billion naira (US $10.1 million) as compensation for the effects of a 1998 oil spill, Nigerian and company officials said on Monday. In a judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Abdullahi Mustapha of the Federal High Court in Lagos held the oil company liable for damage done by floating crude oil to fisheries and the ecology of the coastal communities of Bonny, Brass and Andoni, a court official said.