Four foreign oil workers seized in Nigeria

LAGOS, June 2 (Reuters) Gunmen disguised as riot police have abducted four foreign workers from the residential compound of oil services giant Schlumberger in Nigeria's oil city Port Harcourt, authorities said today.

Kidnapping has become an almost daily occurrence in the anarchic Niger Delta, home to Africa's largest oil industry, and about 30 foreigners are now being held by various armed groups in the vast wetlands region.

''Some expats were kidnapped from the club of Schlumberger Anadrill in a residential area last night,'' said Rivers state police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu, adding that the abductors were dressed as riot police.

Schlumberger Anadrill is a private subsidiary of US-listed Schlumberger, the world's largest oil services company.

A security source with an oil company in the area said the four hostages were citizens of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Pakistan.

Attacks on oil facilities and kidnappings have forced thousands of foreign workers to flee, and reduced oil output from the world's eighth-largest exporter by almost a million barrels a day, or one third of Nigeria's capacity.

Some armed groups say they are fighting for more autonomy for the impoverished oil province of southern Nigeria, but the line between militancy and crime is blurred and most abductions are by groups seeking ransom.

DYNAMITE Gunmen used dynamite and machine guns to seize at least three top Indian managers of Indonesian chemical company Indorama from their residence near Port Harcourt yesterday.

Diplomatic sources said the gunmen also took three family members including women and children.

The British government last week advised its citizens to avoid all travel to the Niger Delta.

''The situation is getting worse,'' a senior Western diplomat said.

The crisis in the delta is a major priority for the new government of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who took office on Tuesday and used his inaugural address to appeal for an end to violence.

Yar'Adua had announced a summit on the region starting on Monday, but the presidency postponed it today saying that participants had asked for more time to consult.

The government reaffirmed its wish to find an ''equitable and durable solution'' to the crisis, and repeated its call to all groups to eschew violence, the state news agency said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an armed group at the vanguard of delta militancy, has demanded regional control over the delta's oil wealth, the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation to delta villages for oil pollution.

It had said it would release six foreign oil workers in its custody on Wednesday, but said it was concerned they would be killed by troops as they were being escorted out of the remote creeks. MEND said its request for a helicopter was turned down by US oil company Chevron.

The six, including four Italians, one American and a Croat, were seized from an offshore oil platform operated by Chevron on May 1.

Reuters SG VV1525