Lagos, Nigeria
Striking Nigerian oil workers have been holding nearly 100 foreign oil workers, including 21 Americans, hostage for more than 10 days, the Texas-based drilling company Transocean said this week. The strikers are holding their captives on four offshore oil rigs that drill for the oil multinationals Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf. They are protesting a decision by Transocean to use boats instead of helicopters to ferry them from the rigs, about 25 miles offshore, to the mainland. Some of the hostages have been able to e-mail their families and their labor unions. One of them reported that the captors had threatened to blow up the rigs if anyone tried to storm them, a union official said.
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