02/06/2006

Oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Eight oil workers, including six Britons, have been kidnapped from an offshore oil rig in Nigeria, it has been reported.

It is understood that six Britons, a Canadian and an American were taken hostage from the Buldford Dolphin rig in the early hours of Friday morning.

Fred Olsen Energy, the company which owns the rig, said that work at the rig had now been suspended.

The kidnapping follows a series of attacks on foreign oil interests by rebel groups in Nigeria. which is Africa's largest exporter of oil.

A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) has been carrying out a series of attacks on oil plants and pipelines and it renewed its threat to continue to attack oil installations earlier this year unless there was more local control of oil revenues, as well as compensation for pollution.

Foreign oil workers have also been kidnapped in the country in the past.

It has been estimated that Nigeria's oil production output has dropped by almost 25% because of Mend's activities.

The Foreign Office confirmed that it was aware of the reports of the kidnapping and were looking into them.

(KMcA)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

15 November 2013
Green Light For £4bn Investment In 140m Barrel Oil Field Development
EnQuest, the largest UK independent oil company in the UK North Sea, has given its go-ahead for a £4bn investment in the 140m barrel oil field Kraken development.
05 June 2006
Kidnapped oil workers released
Eight foreign oil workers, including six Britons, who were kidnapped in Nigeria on Friday have been released. The six Britons, along with an American and a Canadian, were taken hostage from the Bulford Dolphin oil rig in the early hours of Friday morning.
27 August 2013
Salvage Team Still Searching For Black Box
Experts are hoping to recover the black box recorder from a helicopter which crash landed in the North Sea on Friday, killing four people. Three men and one woman died when a Super Puma AS332 L2 helicopter crashed into the sea as it carried 18 oil workers from the Borgsten Dolphin rig to Sumburgh Airport in Shetland.
11 February 2008
Woman Due In Court Over Oil Rig Bomb Hoax
A 23-year-old woman is due to appear in court today, charged in connection with an alleged bomb threat hoax which led to the evacuation of a North Sea oil platform at the weekend.
13 June 2013
Kidnapped Briton Found In Indonesia
A British man kidnapped in Indonesia on Tuesday has returned to his family. 61-year-old Malcolm Primrose was seized in the north Sumatran province of Aceh. Mr Primrose worked for oil company Medco E&P, who are reported to have expressed their "deepest gratitude" to local authorities who helped recover Mr Primrose.