Wednesday August 30th, 2006 / 11h15
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB)-led joint venture in Nigeria confirmed late Tuesday that a local employee was killed following a clash 10 days ago between the military and rebels in the Niger Delta, a development that raises the specter of strike action at a meeting between oil unions Wednesday, a union leader said.
The Shell Petroleum Development Co. said in a statement that the body of community relations employee Nelson Ujeya had been found Tuesday, following an incident Aug. 20.
Ujeya, who had been kidnapped by Niger Delta militants, “was said to be in a convoy of boats, together with Bayelsa State Government representatives, Community Chiefs and a number of militants, when there was an exchange of gunfire between some members of the (government) Joint Task Force and the militants,” the statement said.
Nigeria’s white-collar oil workers union the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or Pengassan, is meeting Wednesday with the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers, or Nupeng, to discuss what action to take.
The news “automatically raises the stakes at today’s meeting,” Peter Esele, Pengassan president told Dow Jones Newswires.
Wednesday August 30th, 2006 / 11h15