Nigerian gunmen kidnap foreign oil workers
Gunmen stormed an offshore oil platform run Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria and kidnapped four foreign oil workers, while a separate pipeline that pumps 106,000 barrels crude daily ruptured, company officials said today.
Gunmen in three boats seized the four oil workers from a support vessel attached to the oil platform yesterday afternoon, Shell spokesman Andy Corrigan said.
A Bulgarian foreign ministry statement said a Bulgarian, a Briton, a US national and a man from Honduras made up the hostages.
It said the Nigerian authorities had been contacted but there was no information yet about the kidnappers’ demands.
The British embassy in Nigeria said it believed one of its nationals was among the hostages.
In a separate incident, a major pipeline feeding Shell’s Forcados oil export terminal ruptured overnight at Brass Creek in the troubled delta, forcing the company to stop production of 106,000 barrels of oil daily, Shell said in a statement.
