Gunmen invaded an oilfield control station in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta and are holding several people hostage, a company spokesman said on Friday.
Following is a chronology of some major attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in the last three months.
— Aug 3 – German Guido Schiffarth, an employee of Bilfinger and Berger, kidnapped in Port Harcourt, is released on Aug. 19.
— Aug 4 – Gunmen abduct three Filipino oil workers from a bus near Port Harcourt. They are released 10 days later.
— Aug 9 – Two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers are kidnapped and freed six days later.
— Aug 10 – Two contractors, a Belgian and a Moroccan, are kidnapped in Port Harcourt. Both are released on Aug. 14.
— Aug 13 – Five foreign oil workers are kidnapped from a nightclub in Port Harcourt, two Britons, a German, an Irishman and a Pole. An American is also kidnapped.
— Aug 16 – A Lebanese man is kidnapped near the border between Rivers and Bayelsa states. He is freed 16 days later.
— Aug 24 – An Italian oil worker employed by Saipem is seized by gunmen in Port Harcourt. He is freed five days later.
— Oct 2 – Twenty-five Nigerian staff of a Royal Dutch Shell contractor are abducted after a raid on boats carrying supplies to Shell facilities in the Cawthorne Channel in Rivers state. They are released two days later.
— Oct 21 – Seven foreign oil workers held hostage since Oct. 3 are released. The men, four Britons, one Romanian, one Malaysian and an Indonesian, were kidnapped in a raid on a compound for expatriate contractors working for Exxon Mobil.
— Nov 7 – An American and a Briton, working for Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and kidnapped from a survey ship off the coast the southern state of Bayelsa on Nov 2, are freed.
— Nov 22 – A British oil worker is killed when Nigerian troops try to free seven foreigners abducted from an offshore oilfield earlier in the day. An Italian and one other foreign worker are injured in the rescue attempt.
— Dec 7 – Eight gunmen kidnap three Italians and one Lebanese from a residential facility after failing in their attempt to storm the Agip oil export terminal in Bayelsa state. The next day, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), threatens new attacks and claims responsibility.
— Dec 14 – Armed men invade the Nun River logistics base operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Bayelsa state and hold several soldiers and oil workers hostage at the facility.
Source: Reuters