United States oil-services contractor Willbros Group has confirmed that nine employees, including three Americans, were kidnapped on Saturday in Nigeria by guerrillas who attacked a Niger Delta oil terminal.
Willbros’s Houston office said workers on its pipe-laying barge working near Shell’s 380 000-barrel-per-day Forcados terminal were abducted by the attackers.
Three Americans, two Egyptians, two Thais and one Filipino were taken hostage in the incident, Willbros said in a statement.
Willbros ”has not, at this time, been contacted by the group which has claimed responsibility”, it said.
A US State Department spokesperson confirmed the kidnapping of the three US citizens in the troubled region and called for them to be freed. ”We call for their unconditional release,” the spokesperson said.
The hostages were seized from a barge operated by their employer by an armed gang at about 5am local time.
”There was shooting on the barge and there have been some casualties. At the moment this appears to be a couple of navy personnel, one badly injured,” said an internal oil-industry security report that was passed to Agence France-Presse.
Willbros said it has a crisis-management team ”working closely with the appropriate parties and authorities to seek an early and safe resolution of the situation”.
On Friday, the US State Department reissued a month-old travel warning regarding Nigeria because security in the region has ”deteriorated significantly”.
”The lack of law and order in Nigeria poses considerable risks to travellers,” it said in a communiqué.
”The security situation in the Delta region has deteriorated significantly. Travel to the region remains very dangerous and should be avoided,” said the statement. — Sapa-AFP