Judges have rejected most of a landmark case brought by Nigerian farmers against Royal Dutch Shell over the poisoning of fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines.
The Dutch Hague Civil Court rejected all cases against the Netherlands-based company.
However, in one case, it ordered subsidiary Shell Nigeria to compensate a farmer for breach of duty of care by making it too easy for saboteurs to open an oil pipe.
The level of damages in that case will be established at a later hearing.
The court rejected other claims, saying they were caused by saboteurs and, under Nigerian law, oil companies are not responsible unless they breach their duty of care.
The complaint was brought by four Nigerians and Friends of the Earth Both sides have three months to appeal.
The case was seen by activists as a test for holding multinational companies responsible for alleged offences at foreign subsidiaries.
Four Nigerians and environmental group Friends of the Earth filed the suit in 2008 in the Netherlands - where Shell has its global headquarters - seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the Niger Delta region.
The court backed Shell's argument that the spills were caused by sabotage and not poor maintenance of its facilities, as had been argued by the Nigerians.
"Shell Nigeria should and could have prevented this sabotage in an easy way," the ruling said. "This is why the district court has sentenced Shell Nigeria to pay damages to the Nigerian plaintiff."
The area is the main source of food for Nigeria's poorest The Nigerians - fishermen and farmers - said they could no longer feed their families because the region had been polluted by oil from Shell's pipelines and production facilities.
The pollution is a result of oil spills in 2004, 2005 and 2007, they said.
It is the first time a Dutch-registered company has been sued in a domestic court for offences allegedly carried out by a foreign subsidiary.
The suit targeted Shell's parent company in the Netherlands and its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Co. It is the largest oil and gas company in Nigeria, Africa's top energy producer, with an output of more than one million barrels of oil or equivalent per day.
Shell lawyers in October said that the company had played its part in cleaning up the Delta, which accounts for more than 50% of Nigeria's oil exports.
The Niger Delta has about 31 million inhabitants and includes the Ogoniland region. It is the main source of food for the impoverished, rural population.
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