Nigerian gunmen hijack oil supply vessel
The "Benue," belonging to local oil services company West Africa Offshore (WAO) was returning from the Agbami offshore oil field operated by US major Chevron to Onne in Rivers state when it was seized on Sunday, one private security source working in the oil industry told Reuters.
The Agbami field, which started production in July at 20,000 barrels per day, is expected to ramp up to around 100,000 bpd by February and hit its plateau of 250,000 bpd by the end of next year.
"WAO Benue, a supply boat returning from Agbami field to Onne port, was hijacked along the Port Harcourt channel at about 1440 GMT hours [on Sunday]," the security source said.
Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, confirmed the hijacking but did not immediately have details.
No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack.
Insecurity in the vast wetlands region surged in early 2006 when militants, who say the are fighting for more local control of the impoverished region's oil wealth, started blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign oil workers.
Criminal gangs have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order and the instability has become as much about control of a lucrative trade in stolen oil and abductions for ransom as about political struggle.
The latest hijacking came barely three months after gunmen in May seized another supply vessel, MV Lourdes Tide, working for Chevron, and demanded a 30 million naira (Dh934,000) ransom for the release of the boat and its 11-man crew, who included one Portuguese and one Ukrainian.
The Lourdes Tide, operated by oil services firm Tidewater Nigeria Ltd, was carrying supplies from Onne to Escravos in neighbouring Delta state when it was attacked.