Nigeria gunmen kidnap American, Briton, in volatile delta

[ECH1969]

Armed gunmen seized two expatriate oil workers — an American and a Briton — during a raid on a Norwegian oil services ship off Nigeria's southern coast, officials and the oil company said Thursday.

The two were seized before dawn from a vessel belonging Oslo, Norway-based Petroleum Geo-Services, said company official Christopher Mollerlokk.

A security official who works for a large multinational oil company in Nigeria said gunmen raided the vessel off the coast of Bayelsa State and sped away in boats with the hostages. He said the boat was surveying potential oil fields at the time. He declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=200140410&p=zxxy4yyy6

[maddezmom]

1. here's a link with info

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/November/theworld_November55.xml§ion=theworld
Briton, American kidnapped from oil ship in Nigeria
(Reuters)

2 November 2006



LAGOS - A Briton and an American were kidnapped on Thursday from an oil prospecting ship off the coast of Nigeria’s southern state of Bayelsa, diplomatic and security sources said.


It was the latest in a wave of kidnappings and violence against foreigners in the oil producing Niger Delta which has forced hundreds of workers to pull out of the region and reduced Nigerian oil output by 500,000 barrels a day.

“Two expatriates, an American and a Briton, working for PGS have been kidnapped this morning on board MV Commander, one of the vessels at sea in Bayelsa,” a security source said, asking not to be named.

~snip~

[lapfog_1]

3. Right on schedule

gas prices will start to rise... using this dust-up as an excuse.

But there will be more... expect more problems with refineries and pipelines in the near future.

[Vexatious Ape]

2. If I remember correctly--

they had mention it on NPR the other day--we get 15% of our oil from Nigeria. This could be interesting.