Dozens of British and American oil workers are being held hostage on four rigs off Nigeria’s coast by local colleagues in a bizarre drama which has been kept secret for 12 days, it has emerged.
Several captives have allegedly been put in containers and dangled by cranes over the sea and others threatened with death in an apparent attempt by striking Nigerian workers to intimidate managers.
At least 35 Britons and 21 Americans are among the 97 expatriates trapped since a labour dispute flared into insurrection on April 19.
Armed with axes and claiming to have explosives, the strikers have prevented boats docking and placed oil barrels on helipads to block helicopters, effectively turning the rigs into floating jails 25 miles from shore.
Food and water are running low and in the cramped conditions there is a siege atmosphere, with at least two captives reported to have had nervous breakdowns. Via email, one worker said his biggest fear was a rescue attempt by the Nigerian navy ending in a bloodbath: ”Make no mistake of the danger we’re in. If they have lost everything, they will make sure we lose everything. And that could mean our lives.”
That email was read at a press conference yesterday by Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, an Aberdeen-based trade union which has members among the hostages.
Molloy said one hostage had told his wife the captors were threatening to blow up the rigs if anyone tried to storm them. The hostage did not believe they possessed explosives, though they had axes.
The strikers, who fear they will be dismissed, are protesting at disciplinary action against five colleagues and a decision by managers to transport them in boats rather than helicopters.
The strikers have defied their own union, Nupeng, which called for the crisis to end. Not able to land on the rigs, union officials have been reduced to faxing pleas for moderation to their members.
The rigs are operated by Transocean Inc, the world’s largest offshore drilling company, which pumps the wells on behalf of the oil multinationals Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFina Elf. Transocean, which is based in Houston, Texas, imposed a news blackout to give negotiators a free hand. Thirty-four people were allowed to leave two rigs by boat on Monday – two were Transocean employees and the others worked for third-party service companies.
Transocean’s chief executive officer, Robert Long, yesterday dismissed reports of threats of violence. The company was ”continuing dialogue” with the strikers and the Nigerian authorities and the rigs were calm. The company’s motto is ”We’re never out of our depth”. A Shell spokesman, Donald Boham, said officials of his company were also involved in the talks.
The strikers use the PA systems to broadcast tribal chants and the repeated percussion of spoons on metal pots. An email, sent by the wife of a Scottish hostage yesterday, revealed the tensions on board. ”[The strikers] flared up and were extremely aggravated and thought the military were going to forcibly remove them from the rig,” she wrote. ”They threatened violence, in particular to blow up the rig … and kill everyone on board.”
The release of as many as 34 expatriates and Nigerian workers yesterday was negotiated by a Dutch drilling supervisor who kept a diary of his ordeal on board one of the four rigs.
His entry for April 26 records what the strikers thought was an attempt by the Nigerian navy to board the drilling platform. ”There was shouting, emotions were vented, some crew members started running around the rig with a fire axe,” he wrote.
”Two containers were placed on the helideck and the crane boom was swung over the helideck. [The ship approaching was told] to move away from the rig immediately.”
Molloy said he had heard of threats to suspend the men in containers from cranes dangling over the waves of the Gulf of Guinea but he did not believe it had been carried out. – Guardian Unlimited Â