American among 8 workers taken (off oil rig) in Nigeria

[phantom power]

ABUJA, Nigeria - Eight foreign workers, including one American, were kidnapped Friday from a drilling rig off Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, the rig's owner and Nigerian police said.

The kidnappers have offered to negotiate the release of the six Britons, the American and a Canadian, who were taken from the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked, the company said.

(...)

Militants have blown up oil pipelines and kidnapped foreign oil workers to press their demands for local control of oil revenues by inhabitants of the country's south, who feel cheated out of their region's oil wealth. Other groups have kidnapped oil workers as bargaining chips to prod companies to increase jobs or improve benefits. The kidnappings usually end peacefully.


(...)

Nigeria, which normally pumps 2.5 million barrels of crude a day, is Africa's largest producer and the fifth-largest source of imports to the United States. Unrest in the country has cut production and helped drive oil prices higher on international markets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_re_af/nigeria_kidnapping