Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC is to pay out £9.7m ($15.5m) to settle a lawsuit over its alleged complicity in the 1995 execution of several Nigerian environmental activists, the UK Press Association and British media reported.

The company acknowledged no wrongdoing in the 1995 hangings of six people opposed to oil exploration, including playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Shell said it agreed to settle the action in the hope of aiding the "process of reconciliation" and also recognised that the victims' families had suffered, the PA report said.

Saro-Wiwa's son, Ken Jr, who helped bring the lawsuit in the US District Court in New York, hailed the payout as "a victory".

The action accused Shell of colluding with the country's former military government to silence environmental and human rights activists in the country.

It was strongly denied by the oil giant.

Among the claims were that Shell officials helped furnish Nigerian police with weapons, participated in security sweeps of the area, and hired government troops that shot at villagers protesting over the construction of a pipeline, PA reported.

Nigerian author Ken Saro-Wiwa - who led rallies against Shell and blamed the company for numerous oil spills and gas fires in the Ogoni region - was executed on November 10, 1995 along with eight other oil activists.

A Nigerian military tribunal convicted them on charges of murdering four political rivals.

"I think (my father) would be happy with this. The fact that (Shell) would have to settle is a victory for us," Saro-Wiwa Jnr, 40, said.

Besides compensating the families, the money will pay for years of legal fees.

A large chunk of the settlement -- about a third -- will create a trust that will invest in social programmes in the country including educational endowments, agricultural development, support for small enterprise and adult literacy programmes.