Rig workers in good condition after Nigerian gunmen leave

From staff and wire reports

WARRI, Nigeria -- The 165 oil rig workers who were held captive by job-hungry gunmen are safe and sound, Royal Dutch/Shell officials said Friday.

The workers remain at their posts on the rigs, but their captors -- 50 armed Ijaw youths from the area -- left after the company agreed to meet with representatives of their group later this month, officials said.

"Since early this afternoon, all the community people left the rigs," Shell production manager Andre van Strijp told reporters at a crisis center in this regional refinery town in the southeastern state of Bayelsa.

Asked if the workers would be taken off the rigs now, Van Strijp said, "We will continue to work as usual and have the normal crew changes."

The Ijaw gunmen on Monday used motorboats to cut through the mangrove swamps northwest of the oil city of Port Harcourt and stormed the two rigs demanding jobs and cash.

The hostages included 145 Nigerians, seven Americans, five Britons and a handful of Australians and Lebanese. All are employed by Mallard Bay and NGN Catering Company, service contractors for Shell, the largest multinational oil company operating in Nigeria.

The gunmen left the rigs at about 5 p.m. local time on Friday, a Shell official said.

Van Strijp said the hostages had been held in the living areas of the rigs and were not threatened. None required medical attention and none appeared to have been mistreated.

Although Shell refused the gunmen's demands for jobs as security personnel and catering staff, and for a $5,000 ransom, company officials agreed to meet with the group's representatives on August 15 to discuss their grievances, a company spokesman said.

The seizure of the oil rigs is the latest in a series of hostage dramas in the Niger Delta as local communities increasingly demand access to the region's oil wealth.

Ten days before the seizure, militant youths protesting job losses in Warri kidnapped two Chinese oil workers on a boat. Both were free after the Nigerian navy stormed the vessel.

Although Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil producer, many residents of the delta live in desperate poverty, without paved roads, electricity or running water.

Shell, which accounts for nearly half of Nigeria's daily oil output of over two millions barrels, said it spends about $50 million on amenities for the local population. Still, many Nigerians believe international oil companies should contribute more toward employment and health care facilities for the local population.

Reporter Gilbert Da Costa and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Shell Nigeria
Shell Oil Company, U.S. Site
Nigeria.Com: Nigeria on the Net
Library of Congress Country Studies: Nigeria
National Archives of Nigeria
Nigeria: Oil And Gas Industry - Overview
Human Rights Watch: The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities
Democracy Now: Voices from the Nigerian Resistance

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