Armed militants killed a Nigerian and kidnapped six foreign oil
workers in an attack on an oil industry vessel off Nigeria's coast
yesterday, security sources and the Italian government said.
Italy's Foreign Ministry said four of the hostages were
Italians. Security sources said one of the others kidnapped was
believed to be American, while the nationality of the sixth person
could not be immediately established.
"The militants shot one navy personnel and compelled the crew to
throw a rope down to give them access by using dynamite," one
security source said.
Industry sources said the vessel, called Oloibiri after
Nigeria's first oil well, is operated by US energy giant
Chevron.
The overnight attack forced Chevron to shut down output at a
small offshore oilfield.
"We have shut down 15,000 barrels per day from the Funiwa
oilfield," a company spokesman said in London.
Nigeria's oil output has been reduced by 500,000 barrels per
day, or a fifth of production capacity, since a series of raids on
Royal Dutch Shell oilfields in February last year forced their
closure.
In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen abducted the mother
of Rivers state governor-elect Celestine Omeiha from her village
near Africa's oil heartland of Port Harcourt.
"We have not yet established contact with the kidnappers so we
don't know the reason why they took her," Rivers state police
commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said.
The abduction is apparently a fall-out from the April 14 state
elections - which monitors said were marred by fraud - because
Niger Delta militants rarely kidnap Nigerians.
In the Niger delta, an increasing number of armed groups
demanding jobs, benefits or control of oil revenues have attacked
industry facilities, kidnapped expatriate staff and fought with
security forces.
But the lines between militancy and crime are blurred in the
delta, a vast wetlands in southern Nigeria that accounts for all
oil production from the world's eighth biggest exporter.
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2007)