Fresh talks aim to end oil rig hostage crisis

Fresh talks opened in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday to end an industrial dispute which has trapped hundreds of locals and foreigners aboard four offshore rigs in the Gulf of Guinea for nearly two weeks. The talks under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) trade union movement, aimed to break a deadlock in negotiations between U.S-based Transocean Inc. - which owns and operates the rigs - and leaders of the powerful oil unions. The strike which began on 19 April has left 97 foreigners and 170 Nigerians trapped on the rigs, with the strikers blocking the helicopter pads and preventing boats from docking alongside. The strikers initially demanded that Nigerian oil workers be carried to and from the rigs in helicopters rather than ships, like their expatriate counterparts, according to Joseph Akinlaja, secretary-general of the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG). Their industrial action escalated after five union leaders were fired for their role in pressing these demands. "Our hope for convening this meeting is to resolve this matter so that those being held will be released," Adams Oshiomhole, NLC president, said. "The purpose is not to go into the issues of who did what." The Abuja meeting was attended by officials of Transocean and the local branch of NUPENG which declared the strike, the national leaders of Nigeria's two main oil unions and representatives of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which oversees the country's oil industry. Earlier this week, the Nigerian navy deployed ships to forcibily evacuate the rigs, but a navy official said on Friday they had refrained from action on the advice of Transocean. "There has been no need for us to do anything after the management (of Transocean) told us the problem has eased," navy spokesman Shinebi Hungiapuko told IRIN. "But our ships are still patrolling the area just in case." Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell told reporters on Thursday the company had urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene to help resolve the dispute.