Gunmen kidnap 10 from oil vessel in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, May 25 (Reuters) Gunmen kidnapped nine foreign oil workers and a Nigerian colleague from a ship off the coast of Nigeria today, police said, bringing the total number of foreign hostages in the country to 25.

The abductions come amid an upsurge in violence against international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, an impoverished wetlands region in southern Nigeria which is home to Africa's biggest oil industry.

Suspected militants in two speed boats exchanged fire with security guards on the vessel during the kidnapping, which took place off the southern state of Bayelsa.

''Some armed men attacked an oil facility and abducted nine foreigners and one Nigerian,'' a spokesman for Bayelsa state police said.

Industry sources said the workers -- three Americans, four Britons, a South African, a Filipino and a Nigerian -- were seized from a pipe laying vessel contracted to Nigerian oil company Conoil.

The sources had earlier identified the owner of the vessel as Texas-based Transcoastal Corp, but a spokesman for that company said it was not involved.

The raid came a day after gunmen kidnapped a Polish engineer near the oil city of Warri, also in the Niger Delta.

Abductions for ransom or to press political demands are frequent in the delta, where there is widespread resentment against an industry that has extracted billions of dollars in oil wealth but left most people living in poverty.

Oil production from Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest exporter, is down by about 700,000 barrels per day or almost a quarter because of an 18-month surge in violence.

Unrest has peaked in the weeks running up to a change of government due to take place on Tuesday, when President Olusegun Obasanjo hands over to President-elect Umaru Yar'Adua.

Militants demanding regional control over oil revenues, compensation for oil spills and freedom for two jailed leaders from the region, see the handover as an opportunity to extract concessions from the central government.

But crime flourishes in the lawless delta and most abductions are motivated by money. About 100 foreigners have been kidnapped this year and released unharmed after their employers paid ransoms.

REUTERS JK PK KP2323