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Delta gunmen kidnap six oil workers



By Upstream staff 

Gunmen kidnapped six foreign oil workers including three Americans from a ship off the coast of Nigeria today, industry sources said, bringing to 22 the number of foreigners held in Africa's top oil producer.

Shots were fired during the abduction by suspected militants in two speed boats, which took place off the coast of the Niger Delta near the Brass oil export terminal.

"Three Americans, two British and one South African were abducted by militants on two speed boats," one of the sources said, asking not to be named.

They were taken from a pipelaying vessel owned by Texas-based Transcoastal, contracted to Nigerian oil company Conoil, the sources added.

Nigerian authorities and Transcoastal officials were not available for comment.

The raid came a day after gunmen kidnapped a Polish engineer near the oil city of Warri, also in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region which is home to Africa's largest oil industry.

Abductions for ransom or to press political demands are frequent in the impoverished delta, where there is widespread resentment against an industry that has extracted billions of dollars in oil wealth but left most people living in poverty.

Oil production from Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest exporter, is down by about 700,000 barrels per day or almost a quarter because of an 18-month surge in violence, Reuters reported.


Friday, 25 May, 2007, 09:32 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 25 May, 2007, 11:56 GMT

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