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Kidnappings in Nigerian oil city

[righand99]

Kidnappings in Nigerian oil city May 11/2006 - At least one foreign worker has been kidnapped in the troubled southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt a day after a US oil worker was shot dead. The group were travelling with an armed escort when they were taken, an oil industry source told Reuters. A Nigerian militant group campaigning against the oil industry said it had no hand in the kidnappings or the killing. It has kidnapped foreign oil workers before in its quest for more local control of the region's oil wealth. On Wednesday, attackers on a motorbike shot the oil worker as he was driving his car early on Wednesday. The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar says it is the first time a foreigner has been a drive-by shooting victim in the region. The shadowy oil militants The man's name has been withheld. He worked for oil servicing company Baker Hughes Inc. The upsurge of attacks on foreign oil interests has cut the country's oil production by 20%. Last month, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) renewed its threat to continue oil installation attacks. It said the offer of thousands more jobs and a new motorway from President Olusegun Obasanjo did not address their demands for more local control of oil wealth and demilitarisation. The shooting follows two car bomb attacks in recent weeks. The Mend militant group claimed responsibility for them, saying the last one was a warning against Chinese expansion in the region. Earlier that week, Chinese President Hu Jintao had secured four oil drilling licenses for China in return for $4bn (£2.25bn) of investment in Nigeria. Most of its previous operations have been in the rivers and creeks of the Delta, rather than urban areas.