(Adds NOSDRA attribution for spill size in paragraph 6)
By Abraham Terngu
ABUJA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Nigeria's National Assembly saidon Wednesday oil major Shell should pay $3.96 billionfor a 2011 spill at its offshore Bonga oilfield in the latestassessment of damage to the environment.
The non-binding decision comes after years of analysis byvarious Nigerian state agencies, which have proposed a range offines as high as $11.5 billion.
The parliament finally reached a decision based on thereport of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency(NOSDRA), which previously recommended a fine of $5 billion.
Shell declined to comment. The company has previously saidit took responsibility for the spill and had cleaned the area.
The parliament's decision is non-binding as it only has thepower to recommend fines to the government and cannot enforcethem.
NOSDRA estimated that around 40,000 barrels were spilledwhen a tanker was loading crude at the offshore platformoperated by Shell's subsidiary SNEPCO. The Bonga field wasproducing 200,000 barrels per day at the time.
NOSDRA has previously said the spill had hurt locals in thearea who rely on fishing for their livelihoods as the slickcovered an area of around 950 square km.
"Since all efforts by this committee were tactfully rebuffedby SNEPCO, (it) has decided to adopt the damage assessmentreport submitted by NOSDRA as the lead agency in all oil spillmanagement," Uche Ekwunife, chairman of the environmentalcommittee told the assembly.
Shell is also being pursued in a class action case for twoother spills in the Niger Delta in 2008. In June, it offered 30million pounds ($51 million) in compensation to 15,000 residentsin the Bodo Community but this was rejected.
The United Nations Environment Programme has criticisedShell in the past for not doing enough to clean up spills andmaintain infrastructure.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil exporter and an OPEC memberbut the environmental toll has been huge. The mangrove creeks ofthe delta region are heavily polluted mainly due to leaks fromillegal pipeline tapping and sabotage.
Foreign companies have been selling their stakes in onshoreoilfields after becoming frustrated with industrial scale theftand resulting spills, which show no signs of abating.
On Monday, Shell had to shut down a pipeline as a result ofa new leak close to where it was removing oil taps. (Writing by Julia Payne, editing by David Evans)
