Nigerian
officials hopeful on fate of oil hostages
AFP
WARRI,
Nigeria
Petroleumworld.com
02 24 06
Nigerian officials were pursuing talks Thursday with armed militants
aimed at securing the release of nine foreign oilmen who were
kidnapped six days ago from a barge in the Niger Delta.
The nine hostages -- three Americans, a Briton, two Egyptians,
two Thais and one Filipino -- were seized on Saturday by separatist
guerrillas during an attack on the energy giant Shell's Forcados
oil terminal.
Following the attack, in which at least two pipelines were blown
up, Shell suspended loading at Forcados and evacuated its EA offshore
field, cutting Nigeria's exports by 455,000 barrels per day or
around a fifth.
Abel Oshevire, a spokesman for Delta State's Governor James Ibori,
said that talks were making progress, adding: "It's on. We
are expecting anything can happen between now and as soon as overnight."
Delta State authorities made similarly optimistic statements on
Tuesday.
A Shell spokesman said the firm had had no news of the hostages
-- who work for its US subcontractor Willbros -- and that there
was as yet no plan to resume full oil production or export in
the western delta.
Nigeria's federal government has branded the kidnappers criminals,
accusing them of using the cause of ethnic Ijaw separatism to
mask the business of stealing crude from illegally tapped pipelines
and smuggling it abroad.
But Ibori and other Delta State officials have said that the kidnapping
was a reaction from a community which interpreted air raids on
smuggling barges as an attack on their villages and seized the
foreigners as "human shields".
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and the world's sixth
biggest exporter, but the wealth generated by the industry has
not filtered down to the 20 million largely impoverished people
living in the delta's swamps and cities.
AFP
02 23 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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