Militants seize ChevronTexaco oil platforms, navy despatched

Tribal militants armed with automatic weapons have seized two oil platforms in the offshore waters of Nigeria belonging to the oil giant ChevronTexaco, taking several workers hostage. ChevronTexaco said in a statement late on Thursday the armed youths who described themselves as members of the Bini-Oru Security from the Foropa community of Bayelsa State forcibly boarded its Middleton and Pennington platforms on Wednesday. There were 18 workers aboard the two platforms at the time who were taken hostage, the statement said. "Following negotiations with the youths...four of the held persons have been released," the company said. The negotiations, it added, were continuing. Though the company was silent on the demands of the militants, local newspaper reports said the youths were asking the company to pay 260 million naira (US$1.9 million) for security duties they claim to have performed for the oil transnational on the two platforms. They also want jobs for community members as well as schools, health centres and roads, the reports said. ChevronTexaco said it had informed the Nigerian government and the security agencies of the situation, which has forced it to shut down its 300 barrels per day of crude oil production. Navy Captain Femi Ogunjimi, commander of a naval base in the southern oil town of Warri, told reporters on Thursday a navy ship had been desptached to the oil platforms to rescue the hostages and secure the facilities. Newspaper reports on Friday said the navy stormed the Middleton platform on Thursday and freed the hostages, arresting 11 militants. Neither ChevronTexaco nor navy officials were available for comments. Disruption of oil operations through hostage-taking, seizure of oil facilties and violence between rival ethnic communities is rife in Nigeria's oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta. Communities in the region accuse the government and oil transnationals of depriving them of any benefits from the decades of oil production in the region - the mainstay of the economy of Africa's most populous country of over 120 million people. Last week another group of armed militants briefly seized two boats belonging to ChevronTexaco and detained 12 oil workers on the Escravos River. The boats were part of a convoy taking supplies from Warri to ChevronTexaco's Escravos main oil export terminal.