Militants seize oil rig, take workers hostages

Youths in southeastern Nigeria have seized an offshore oil rig owned by Chevron-Texaco, taking dozens of workers hostage, officials of the US company said on Wednesday.

"About 40 youths in several boats boarded the rig Lloyd Noble on Sunday, forced work to stop and are demanding jobs," a senior company official told IRIN. At first "they would not let any of the 88 workers on board the rig leave." He said following negotiations with the youths, who are from the Ilaje community in the western part of the Niger Delta, 45 of the hostages were allowed to leave on Tuesday, but 43 were still being held.

ChevronTexaco officials could not confirm if the militants were armed, but said they had not harmed any of their hostages.

Oil operations in southeastern Nigeria have often been disrupted in recent years by hostage-taking and other acts of violence. The perpetrators are generally locals youths who say their communities have been cheated of the oil wealth produced in their areas.

Such acts of violence had declined in recent months. However, a controversial Supreme Court ruling in a case between the federal and state governments, which denied the states control of revenue from offshore oil production, had led to fears of a new upsurge.

Chevron-Texaco officials said the seized rig was working about eight kilometres offshore. There was no immediate reaction from the government to the incident.