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Three employees of Italian oil company kidnapped in Nigeria: report
AFP
ROME
Petroleumworld.com 08 25 06
Three people including one Italian working for a subsidiary of the Italian oil group ENI have been kidnapped in the Nigerian city of Port Harcout, the Italian news agency ANSA said Friday.
Armed men blocked the vehicle the three employees were travelling in near their office in a Port Harcourt suburb, and killed one bodyguard, the agency reported citing local sources. The three work with ENI's Saipem subsidiary, it said.
An Italian foreign ministry confirmed the hijacking, the news agency said.
Around 40 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria since January, with around 15 abducted in the past two weeks by separatist militants seeking local control of the country's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas resources.
Six foreign oil workers abducted by Niger Delta militants in the restive southern oil-rich state of Rivers were released on Wednesday.
Port Harcourt is the main city in Nigeria's southern oil producing region.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, is the world's sixth biggest crude exporter with 2.6 million barrels per day, but 20 percent of that figure is currently lost to unrest in the region.
ENI has been working in Nigeria for 44 years.
AFP 24 2359 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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