Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell said yesterday it had appealed against a Nigerian court order to pay an ethnic Ogoni community in the volatile oil-producing Niger Delta four billion naira ($40 million) in compensation for a 1970 oil spill. A court in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt ruled on Friday Shell should pay for a devastating oil spill at Ebubu, in the heartland of the Ogoni people who have been battling Shell for years over alleged exploitation and ecological damage.