BEIJING: A Chinese court on Friday ordered ConocoPhillips to pay 1.68 million yuan ($265,000) to 21 fishermen who claimed their livelihoods suffered from oil spills in northern China in 2011, state media reported.The verdict from a court in Tianjin city followed nearly four years of haggling between the fishermen and the company, Xinhua news agency said. In June 2011, spills from an oilfield jointly owned by the Chinese subsidiary of Houston-based ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Corp, China’s main offshore oil and gas producer, drained into the Bohai Sea and its bay. In 2012, ConocoPhillips and CNOOC reached a $160 million agreement with the Agriculture Ministry to settle compensation claims. Xinhua says the 21 fishermen didn’t take part in this process and filed their own case in December 2011. It added that the Tianjin Maritime Court did not find CNOOC liable for compensation because it was not the operator of the oilfield and did not control the source of the spill. ConocoPhillips didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.