The Nigerian Parliament is demanding Shell to pay about $4bn for the damage caused by an oil spill at its Bonga offshore field in December 2011.
The non-binding decision from the parliament committee follows analysis by several state agencies in Nigeria that have proposed fines of about $11.5bn.
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A report by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) estimated that approximately 40,000 barrels were spilled into the sea.
Shell subsidiary SNEPCO operates the oil field, which produced 200,000 barrels of oil per day at the time of spill.
Uche Ekwunife, chairman of the environmental committee, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "Since all efforts by this committee were tactfully rebuffed by SNEPCO, (it) has decided to adopt the damage assessment report submitted by NOSDRA as the lead agency in all oil spill management."
Apart from the Bonga oil field spill, Shell is also involved in two other oil spills in Nigeria.
Amnesty International has recently revealed court documents, which indicated that Shell made false claims on two oil spills at Bodo in Nigeria in 2008.
The documents revealed that the company has repeatedly made false claims about the size and impact of spills and that the company knew for years that its oil pipelines in the Niger Delta were in very poor condition and likely to leak.
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