Paul Smith has vowed never to go back.
After 18 days as a hostage in Nigeria – during which time his wife Paula was told he was dead – he is quitting the African oil producer.
The brutish treatment of Paul, from Peterhead, and colleagues Graeme Buchan, from Stuartfield, Sandy Cruden, from Inverurie, and George McLean, from Elgin, has marked a dangerous turning point for oil workers in the Niger Delta area.
But one former oilman who spent a number of years in Nigeria before getting out because of his own safety fears – himself a hostage eight times – said the recent kidnapping did not come as a surprise to the ex-pat community.
He said: “We could see it was going to get worse, especially with the elections coming up.
“I’ve worked around the world and I’ve been in dangerous countries, but there’s no way these companies can guarantee your safety now unless they’re going to surround you with navy gunboats or tanks, which is not going to happen.”
Like many ex-pats, the man did not want to be named, fearing he would be blackballed by oil companies.
Many oil workers are lured to danger zones by big money – some take home �700 a day.
But he added: “People are starting to pull out. No amount of money is going to make you happy when your life’s at risk.
“I might go back to work offshore, but the negotiations would not be about money – they’d be about security.”
Paul Smith and his colleagues’ ordeal brought back memories of his own kidnappings .
Taken eight times in 12 years, he said: “What normally would happen is a payment – known as a dash – would be given to the village elders by the oil company or oil services company.
“But they’d say they hadn’t been paid and the rest of the villagers would take the expats.”
On the whole though he said his treatment was good compared to what the four had just been through.
Two weeks after the four North-east men were taken from inside the Exxon Mobil residential compound in Eket, the site was as vacated, with the ex-pats relocating to a nearby hotel where they remain under 24-hour guard. They travel to work in buses, again accompanied by armed guards and they live by strict curfews, not allowing them in the town in the evening.
But while the word among ex-pats is that it might be time to pull out, the oil firms are staying put.
Nigeria was the world’s 12th largest oil producer last year, averaging 2.6million barrels a day.
Shell – with 4,500 staff, 95% of whom are Nigerian, and 20,000 contractors – isn’t going anywhere.
And both Sparrows and Oceaneering have remained tight-lipped on their future plans following the latest kidnapping.
For Amicus regional officer Graham Tran however, there is only one solution. He believes oil firms should shut down operations in the region until the safety of workers is guaranteed.
He said:
“Our message is ‘Don’t go’. The companies should be stopping all activity in the Niger Delta and redeploying UK workers until they can guarantee the safety of their employees.”