[JURIST] Royal Dutch Shell PLC [corporate website] will wait for a Nigerian appeals court ruling rather than pay a $1.5 billion judgment [JURIST report] to compensate ethnic communities in Nigeria for pollution from its operations. A company spokesman said paying the judgment, which was due at noon Monday, would be inappropriate because of its appeal [JURIST report; company press release].

Shell was ordered to pay damages to the ethnic Ijaw [Wikipedia backgrounder] in the Niger Delta for pollution caused by its joint venture with the Nigerian government and two other companies. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta [BBC report], a militant group whose attacks have reduced the flow of oil from Nigeria by 20 percent this year, has demanded that Shell pay the Ijaw. AP has more.