Lagos, Apr 30: Nigerian Union leaders began crisis talks with a US oil firm today to seek a way out of a dispute in which 97 British, American and European oil workers have been taken hostage on offshore rigs. Joseph Akinlaja, General Secretary of Nigeria's National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), told a news agency: "We are hopeful that the crisis will be amicably resolved at today's meeting." The talks began at the Lagos offices of Transocean Inc, the Houston-based firm which owns four rigs in the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria which have been in the control of strikers since April 19.
Britain's foreign ministry said yesterday that 97 expatriate workers were on board the four rigs, including 35 Britons. A diplomat in Abuja told a news agency that 21 US citizens were among those trapped.
Nigerian workers angered by the dismissal of five of their colleagues for alleged theft have blocked the helicopter landing decks on the rigs and are restricting access from the sea. Although some foreign oil workers have been allowed to leave for personal and medical reasons during the protest, most remain trapped in increasingly stressful conditions.

The US firm has won a court injunction ordering the strikers off the platforms and has retained four bailiffs, each accompanied by three armed police officers, to enforce the order. Bureau Report