Eight foreign workers were kidnapped on Friday from a drilling rig off Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta in the latest incident to highlight the tenuous security of oil operations in Africa's largest crude producer.
The kidnappers have offered to negotiate the release of the hostages -- six Britons, an American and a Canadian who were taken from the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin before dawn, according to the rig's operating company.
"We understand that the group [of kidnappers] has been in touch with the local companies about negotiations," said Sheena Wallace, a spokesman for Aberdeen, Scotland-based Dolphin Drilling, which operates the rig for the Nigerian oil company Peak Petroleum.
She said she did not have the names of the missing crewmen, information about demands or what group was behind the kidnapping.
Police spokesman Haz Iwendi said in the capital, Abuja, that no group had claimed responsibility and no demands had been made. In recent months, oil-region militants have blown up oil pipelines and kidnapped other foreign workers to press their demands for a greater share of the country's oil wealth.
"Security agencies are trailing them to secure the release of the hostages as soon as possible," Iwendi said.
Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said "the abduction was the result of a misunderstanding between [local] communities and the oil company involved."
Militants in the Niger Delta have justified other such kidnappings as part of their campaign for local control of oil revenues by inhabitants of the country's south, who feel cheated out of the region's oil revenue. Other groups have kidnapped oil workers as bargaining chips to prod companies to increase jobs or improve benefits. The kidnappings usually end peacefully.
Meanwhile, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo promised more funds to the navy to help secure the country's oil assets in the Gulf of Guinea.
"You have to ensure that our economic life-wire, which is maritime, is secured," Obasanjo said at a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the country's navy. Oil exports mostly from the delta region account for more than 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign earnings and more than 80 percent of total government revenue.
Norway's Fred Olsen Energy, Dolphin Drilling's parent company, said in a statement that Nigerian and other authorities were working to resolve the situation.
Wallace said by telephone from Aberdeen that the kidnappers struck the platform, which had 84 people on board, at about 5am on Friday. The rig was about 65km off the Nigerian coast.
She said drilling had temporarily been suspended and that the families of the kidnap victims, as well as other crew members, had been contacted.
Last month, an unidentified gunman riding a motorcycle shot and killed an American riding in a car to work at the offices of the US drilling equipment maker Baker Hughes in the southern Nigerian oil hub of Port Harcourt.
Nigeria, which normally pumps 2.5 million barrels of crude a day, is the fifth-largest source of oil imports to the US. Unrest in the country has cut production and helped drive oil prices higher.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was