Mobil says it has paid out about $20m in compensation after 40,000 barrels of crude oil were spilt off the southeastern province of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, in January last year.

The leak, at the mouth of the Pennington river, caused an oil slick which polluted beaches and fishing waters.

Now fishermen have formed themselves into an organisation - the Association of Mobil Spill Affected Communities, or AMSAC. The group has resorted to direct action to press its claim, forcing the closure of oil flow stations and seizing boats belonging to oil companies.

But Mobil has said it will fiercely resist fraudulent claims from communities hoping to cash in on the disaster. The company said more than 100,000 people living along the entire length of the coast have received compensation and said it did not intend to pay more.

Bad relations

A spokesman for the company said Mobil had looked through more than one million claims and was satisfied that all those who had suffered from the spill had now been compensated.

The oil company last year apologised for the spill following street protests by fishermen and allegations that foreign oil companies pay less attention to standards in Nigeria than they might in the West.

The BBC correspondent in Lagos, Barnaby Phillips, says Mobil is clearly hoping to draw a line under the affair, but the political atmosphere in Nigeria's oil producing areas remain one of suspicion and resentment.