Gunmen kidnap three foreign oil workers

Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped three foreigners working for an oil services firm contracted to Shell in Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta and have demanded a US $200,000 ransom for their release, a Shell spokesman said. He told IRIN that a German and two Fillipinos had been seized from their tug boat near the southern oil town of Warri on Monday by more than 40 armed men in what Shell considered to be "an isolated criminal incident". The kidnappers subsequently sent a note demanding a 25 million naira (US $196,850) ransom, plus a further 400,000 naira (US $ 3,150) to cover the expenses of looking after their hostages. The Shell spokesman said all three hostages were employees of Seabulk Limited, which had been engaged by the US oil service company Wilbros to carry out work on Shell's Yokri gas project near its Forcados export terminal. Shell has called for the release of the hostages, which have not been named, but the transnational oil company has ruled out negotiations with their kidnappers. It has appealed to community leaders in the region to help secure their release. "It is not possible for us to legally aid and abet crime," Harriman Oyofo, Shell Nigeria's external relations manager, told reporters in Warri on Thursday. "We do not negotiate with extortionists and kidnappers because whatever step we take would be a precedent, and if we pay one group we must be prepared for more groups." The disruption of oil operations by restive youths from impoverished communities pressing for more access to Nigeria's oil wealth is common in the volatile Niger Delta. Armed groups have seized foreign oil workers in the past, demanding pay-offs. So far none have been harmed. In recent months, the western Niger Delta, where the latest hostages were seized, has been wracked by fighting between ethnic Ijaw militants and their Itsekiri rivals. Scores of people have died in these clashes. On several occasions the government has sent in the army to restore control.