Armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy’s ENI in south Nigeria early on Friday and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian, industrial and diplomatic sources said.
The ENI group that owns the facility of its Agip subsidiary earlier stated that six workers, of Polish, Filipino and Nigerian nationality, had been seized in the attack, while one Nigerian had been slightly injured.
The sources in Nigeria did not disclose nationalities, but said that a group on a boat came at about 4am local time to board the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FSPO) facility offshore from the giant oil terminal at Bonny in Rivers State.
”Attackers managed to climb aboard the FPSO Mystras and seized six workers, whose nationalities are Polish, Filipino and Nigerian,” the earlier ENI report said on the company website. ”Another Nigerian worker is reported to be slightly injured in one leg.”
The Italian Foreign Ministry said no Italian nationals were involved.
In the 18 months to June more than 200 foreigners, mostly oil workers, were kidnapped in the Niger Delta region by a mixture of criminal gangs and militants calling for fairer distribution of oil revenues.
Most have ended up being released unharmed.
Draconian security measures put in place by companies have reduced the abductions in recent months but markets remain jittery over any threats to production as crude prices hit new highs.
The unrest has reduced by a quarter exports of Nigeria’s 2,6-million barrels of crude per day at peak production. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but the country remains desperately poor. — AFP
