British oil workers 'to be freed'

Bayelsa may be oil-rich but its people live in poverty

Oil giant Shell says it has reached agreement on the release of 165 employees - five of them British - being held hostage on oil rigs in Nigeria.

A spokesman for the company told the BBC that members of a local community in the Niger Delta, who had stormed the rigs on Monday, had agreed to vacate them on Thursday.

Families of the British oil workers have been contacted, but their names have not been released by the Foreign Office.

Delta oil hostages

March 2000 - 32 held for 5 days

July 99 - 64 held for two days

June 99 - 2 helicopter pilots held for 3 weeks

The hostage takers are demanding employment with the company and unspecified "compensation" for taking oil from the area.

Militants in the Niger Delta region have frequently taken foreign workers hostage in order to draw attention to their cause, demanding money or jobs.

Swamps

The rigs are located in one of the most inaccessible areas of the Niger Delta, a region of sea water creeks, swamps and mangrove islands.

A spokesman for Shell, Harriam Essa Oyofo, said the 35 people came to the oil rigs in 8 motorboats.

Oil workers are frequently targeted

He said they were demanding employment for 10 youths from the catering contractor and for 20 youths with the security services contractor.

Mr Oyofo told the BBC's Focus on Africa there was concern about the welfare of the hostages.

"We suspect they are running out of food," he said.

Poor region

Oil production in the Delta generates much of Nigeria's revenue, but historically the region has not benefited from the wealth.

Shell is the largest multinational oil company operating in Nigeria, and its production accounts for nearly half of the country's total daily output of just over two million barrels a day.

President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to develop the oil-producing areas when he came to power last year and has set up a new body, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to do this.

But so far little has changed for the residents of the area with, unemployment still high and infrastructure poor.