Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates): Nigeria locates hostages, oil output recovers (Reuters): Posted Sunday 15 January 2006

LAGOS — A Nigerian team of negotiators tried yesterday to secure the release of four foreign hostages as oil output in the world's eighth largest exporter recovered from twin attacks earlier in the week.

Officials said the four kidnapped oil workers — an American, Briton, Bulgarian and Honduran — were safe and being held in a vessel offshore, although the identity of the kidnappers was still not known.

"The government dispatched a team yesterday to establish contact with the kidnappers and find out what their grievances and demands are," said Ekiyor Conrad Welson, a spokesman for the state of Bayelsa where the kidnap took place.

"As it is now, we do not know anything about the group or what their grievances are. We hear that the hostages are being held off the coast."

Royal Dutch Shell yesterday resumed production from the offshore E.A. oilfield, restoring 120,000 barrels a day after the two-day closure. Loadings of oil tankers from the field located 15 miles (25km) off the coast of the southern Niger Delta were uninterrupted.

But the company said it would take another 3-4 days to repair a 100,000 barrel-a-day pipeline feeding its Forcados export terminal bombed on the same day, and declared a 'force majeure' on exports to release it from contractual commitments.

"There will be a deferment of 3-4 days in all loadings for the rest of January and all of February," a Shell spokesman said.

Security services still do not know who is responsible for a wave of attacks against oil workers, pipelines and platforms in the delta over the past three weeks, but industry sources suspect one criminal gang is responsible.

In the delta city of Warri, chief of naval staff Gani Adekeye said the navy knew the location of the hostages.

"We know where they are and we are aware they are safe," Adekeye told reporters.

This week's attacks came three weeks after militants blew up a big Shell-run export pipeline feeding its Bonny export terminal, also in the delta.

A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the attacks and kidnapping in an email statement on Thursday, but a diplomat involved said the claim lacked credibility.

Violence against the oil sector is frequent in the Niger Delta, where an estimated 20 million people live in poverty alongside a multi-billion-dollar industry.

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