David Pallister
Monday October 22, 2007
Armed militants kidnapped seven oil workers, including one Briton, in the Niger Delta at the weekend, in the first major rebel assault on Nigeria’s oil installations since an uneasy truce was brokered five months ago by the new president, Umaru Yar’Adua.
Gunmen in 30 high-powered boats attacked a supply vessel servicing Shell’s offshore EA field which had been closed last year after a similar incident.
Shell security sources said the men – four Nigerians, one Croat, one Russian and one Briton – were taken along with their vessel after a three-hour gunfight with Nigerian troops. One person was reported injured. Other workers aboard the rig were evacuated.