Militants in Nigeria Attack Offshore Oil Rig, Cut Production

Armed gunmen attacked an oil rig in Nigerian waters forcing theoperator, Royal Dutch Shell, to shut down production in the area. In aseparate but related incident, militants attacked a boat briefly takinga U.S. national aboard hostage. For VOA, Sarah Simpson has more fromLagos.

Royal Dutch Shell confirm that gunmen attacked one oftheir oil rigs in Nigeria in the early hours of Thursday morning. Theattack forced the oil giant to shut down oil production in the area -reducing its daily output by 200,000 barrels.

This latest attacksignificantly reduces Nigerian crude production, already well belowcapacity due to sustained attacks from militant groups.

Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement issued to journalists.

MENDalso says it took a US national hostage Thursday in a separateincident. The group said later it released the hostage withoutconditions. Private security officials confirmed the man's release.

Hostage taking for ransom is common in the Niger Delta.

Attackson offshore facilities are rare. Many oil industry officials consideroffshore operations to be safer than operating onshore in the NigerDelta. However, a written statement, MEND said it wanted to demonstratethat no oil facility, even one's offshore, is safe.

In MEND'swords, "The location for today's attack was deliberately chosen toremove any notion that off-shore oil exploration is far from ourreach." The rig attacked on Thursday lies some 100 kilometers out tosea in the Bonga oil field.

The Niger Delta remains poor despitedecades of oil production. The delta is awash with guns and much of thesimmering anger in the region is directed towards the oil industry.