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20 Oil Workers Kidnapped

Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
4 May 2007
Posted to the web 4 May 2007

By Henry Omonu

Armed men abducted at least 20 foreigners in three separate incidents in the
Niger Delta overnight to Thursday in the latest spate of violence.
The attacks followed another kidnapping Tuesday in which six expatriates were
seized from a floating oil vessel.
On Wednesday night an unemployed Dutch oil worker was kidnapped from a bar in
the southern town of Warri in the oil-rich Delta state. Then early Thursday
three Korean executives and eight Filipino workers were seized from a
construction site in Rivers state after a gunfight.
In a third incident, gunmen kidnapped eight foreigners working on a floating
storage vessel operated by ENI of Italy and Single Buoy Moorings, the Mystras,
anchored 90 kilometers (55 miles) off the Rivers coast, only to announce hours
later that they had released them.
Industry sources said the Mystras hostages, who they had previously said
numbered six, were a Briton, two Croatians, one Australian, a Romanian, a
Chilean and two Poles.
An official with Single Buoy Moorings (SBM) said the attack had forced a
production shutdown resulting in the loss of "between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels
per day" of oil on the Okono field where the vessel was moored.
Militants yesterday stormed the Afam Power Station at Oyigbo Local Government
area of Rivers state, taking eight Filipinos and three Koreans hostage. The
attack is said to have occurred at 3. 30 a.m. Thursday.
A policeman was shot during the attack. The expatriates taken hostages are
staff of Daewoo Nigeria Limited which is building two power plants for oil
giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] at Afam.
In another attack yesterday, militants were reported to have attacked a
production platform off the coast of Bonny Island. 20 oil workers were on the
platform at the time of the attack..
Daily Trust gathered that the platform known as Mistras belongs to Nigerian
Agip Oil Company, but is operated by an oil servicing company, Saipem Nigeria
Limited .
Six foreign oil workers were taken hostage by the att-ackers who engaged
security men in a fierce gun battle.
Sources could not confirm the exact number of hostages taken and the number of
persons wounded, if any.
When contacted, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu confirmed
the attack on Afam, disclosing that no policeman was killed during the incident
.
On the Bonny attack, Ogbaudu stated that he was yet to get the details from his
officers in the area.

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