Oil firms urged to honour deals
2005-06-17 10:04
Lagos - The Nigerian government urged the management of multinational oil companies operating in the country to implement any deals entered into with their host communities after youths took six Shell oil workers hostage in Nigeria's volatile, oil-rich south.
A government spokesperson said late on Thursday as negotiations for the release of the six - two Germans and four Nigerians - got underway that youths always refer to foreign oil firms' refusal to honour accords as possible causes for such acts.
"They (hostage-takers) are complaining about non-implementation of an agreement they had with a big foreign oil company on development of their area," government spokesperson Preye Wariowei said.
"Government feels embarrassed by this incident which was caused by Shell's refusal to implement a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) it entered into with the Amatu community", an official statement from the office of Bayelsa State governor said.
Officials of Shell were unavailable to respond to the government charge.
Kidnapping of oil workers is rampant in the southern coastal states of Nigeria, which has a daily production of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil.
Local communities accuse foreign oil companies and authorities of not passing the oil wealth on to them.
The six kidnapped men work for Bilfinger Berger Gas and Oil Services (B&B), an affliate of German construction giant Julius Berger which provides services to oil and gas companies, especially Shell, in the Niger Delta region.
They were "kidnapped on the high seas between Delta and Bayelsa States on Wednesday morning," Julius Berger spokesperson Clement Iloba said.
The two states on the Gulf of Guinea are part of the oil heartland of Africa's largest producer.
"The (Bayelsa) state governor has directed that the hostages be released immediately and we are very hopeful that they will be released in no distant time," Wariowei said
"The government has dispatched a high-powered team to effect the release of the hostages. The team included senior government officials, legislators and local council officials.
"They will travel to Bomadi town by car and make the remaining journey to the Amatu community where the hostages are being held by boat," he said.
The negotiating team was at 19:00 GMT on Thursday yet to return to give a report on their mission, Wariwei said.
But he expressed hope that the mission to secure the release of the hostages would be successful.
An Ijaw community leader said that "the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC - a government agency) has established a negotiation team and we are trying to effect the release of the hostages. We are negotiating."
"We have begun to discuss with the hostage takers and are trying to understand why they did that. We have spoken (by phone) with one of the chiefs of the group involved," he added.
- SAPA