The international oil corporation Mobil has denied that an oil slick off the coast of Nigeria has destroyed marine life.

The Mobil statement, issued in Lagos, said its team of biologists had found no evidence to support claims by communities in Akwa Ibom state in south-eastern Nigeria that the oil had killed large quantities of fish and destroyed fishing nets.

Earlier, Mobil said most of the oil from the forty-thousand barrel spill dispersed or was cleaned up before it reached the shore.

The leak, one of the biggest in Nigerian waters in recent years, came from a pipeline running from an offshore production platform.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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