Strikers hold 97 hostage in Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Striking Nigerian oil workers have taken about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil installations, company officials and union workers said Tuesday. The hostages include 21 Americans.\nThe strikers have been holding 97 foreign workers, including 35 Britons, aboard four offshore drilling rigs owned by Houston-based Transocean since April 19. The events occurred in a remote area off the coast of the West African nation, one of the world's largest oil exporters and the fifth-largest producer of U.S. oil imports.\nThe rigs were drilling wells for oil multinationals Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFina Elf.\nWestern diplomats said the hostages included 21 Americans. Their conditions were unclear, although there were no initial reports of injuries or deaths.\nThirty-four people left two rigs by boat Monday, Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell said. Two were Transocean employees, while the other 32 work for third-party service companies.\nCantwell said he did not know whether those 34 people were among the 97 hostages.\nSabotage and hostage takings by community activists, labor groups demanding compensation for land use and alleged environmental damage are relatively common in the Niger Delta, where nearly all of Nigeria's oil is drilled, though hostages rarely have been harmed in the past.\nHowever, a British hostage told his wife Tuesday these hostage-takers threatened to blow up the rigs if anyone tried to storm them, said Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, an Aberdeen, Scotland-based labor union whose members are among the hostages.\nThe woman said her husband did not believe the strikers had explosives. Molloy did not know if the strikers had guns, although he said some hostages said their captors were armed with company fire axes.\nMany strikers appeared willing to end the current hostage-taking but wanted assurances first they would not lose their jobs because of the action, Molloy said.\nTransocean chief executive officer Robert L. Long dismissed reports that any expatriates had been threatened. The company was "continuing dialogue" with the strikers and Nigerian authorities to resolve the standoff, he added, describing the negotiations as "delicate."\n"Right now the situation is very calm on all the rigs," Long said in a conference call with investors and journalists. "I know there has been some rumors of threats of violence ... but we've not had any threats of violence."\nShell spokesman Donald Boham said company officials were involved in the talks. He was unaware of any threats being made.\nThe strikers were protesting a decision by Transocean to use boats instead of helicopters to ferry them from company rigs about 25 miles offshore the restive Niger Delta state of Rivers, said Joseph Akinlaja, secretary-general of Nigeria's largest oil workers' union.\nThe strikers, whose numbers were unknown, also were angered by company threats to institute disciplinary action against five union members, Akinlaja said.\nCantwell said the 100 striking workers were being served court injunctions. He said the situation was calm and there were no injuries.\n"We are working on all levels of the Nigerian system, including government authorities and the branch of the union above the striking branch, who disagrees with the strike, and we're trying to resolve it as quickly and safely as we can," he said.\nEthnic and political violence is another frequent hazard in the region. In March, fighting shut down nearly 40 percent of Nigeria's production of 2.2 million barrels a day.