At least two foreign oil workers were kidnapped on Thursday in a main oil industry city in Nigeria’s delta region only a day after an American oil contractor was shot dead.
Industry officials said the workers abducted were employees of Saipem, an Italian oil contractor, and one of the men kidnapped was Italian. Some security officials said there could have been three workers kidnapped.
The men were kidnapped as they travelled in a car in Port Harcourt, the largest city in Nigeria’s turbulent Niger Delta region. Industry officials said the kidnapping was linked to a dispute between the company and a local community in which it worked.
The men were taken from their car and taken by boat into the mangrove creeks of the delta. Police said they were working to obtain the release of the captives.
FT