Hopes High Oil Workers Will Be Freed

Sun Herald

Sunday June 4, 2006

By ESTELLE SHIRBON LAGOS

NEGOTIATORS in Nigeria's oil-producing southern delta were seeking the release of eight foreign workers kidnapped from an oil rig by gunmen demanding jobs and development for their community.

Six Britons, a Canadian and an American were seized from an offshore rig on Friday, raising new security fears after a campaign of militant attacks this year that have cut a quarter of crude oil output from Africa's biggest producer.

The sophisticated night raid, 65 kilometres off the coast of the Niger Delta by 20 to 30 gunmen in four speedboats, showed that even deep offshore oil rigs were no longer safe from well-armed local groups.

"There are negotiations going on. I can't say who, but I believe it's the right people from both sides. We are getting help from a couple of people who seem to be accepted by both sides," said a source from one of the oil companies involved.

"Good progress is being made. We're very optimistic. We don't think this is likely to be prolonged," said the source, who did not want to be named to avoid making himself or his company a target.

He said the kidnappers had not listed any specific demands but wanted to force the oil companies to negotiate on a range of issues including employment for local people, environmental damage and development projects.

"They want to bring everyone to the table to hear their plight," the source said.

Abductions are a common tactic by disgruntled groups in the Niger Delta, a vast, impoverished wetland that produces the bulk of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. Local people have seen few benefits from the industry.

Poverty, graft, lawlessness and struggles over a lucrative trade in stolen crude fuel militancy and unrest in the delta.

Security analysts said the real motivation of most kidnappers was to get hefty ransoms from oil companies, which usually paid. The companies denied this, but analysts said the practice existed and encouraged hostage takings.

The company source said the eight hostages were being well treated and their captors had allowed a delivery of food, clothes and toiletries for the men.

He said everyone was in good health. The captives were being allowed to use a satellite phone. They made three calls to the company's Nigerian base, and one of them was allowed to call his wife at home.

The men are believed to be held in a wetland in the Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa state, the coastal area nearest to the Bulford Dolphin rig where the raid took place.