US oil worker killed in Nigeria
2006-05-10 21:58
Port Harcourt - A gunman riding a motorcycle shot and killed an American oil worker in a southern Nigeria city on Wednesday.
Nigerian police commissioner Samuel Adetuyi said the American worked for the United States drilling equipment maker Baker Hughes Inc, and was riding in a car to his Port Harcourt office when he was killed.
The US embassy in Nigeria said it was investigating the report.
A new Nigerian group, whose attacks on oil installations have cut Nigeria's 2.5 million barrel daily oil production by 20%, said on Tuesday that it would continue to target oil workers.
It was not clear if Wednesday's killing was linked to the threat from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta group said it is fighting for local control of oil revenues by the impoverished inhabitants of the oil-producing delta.
It said the residents feel cheated out of the wealth produced in their backyards.
The group has kidnapped American and other foreign oil workers, but released them unharmed.
- AP