afrol News, 14 May - Unidentified gunmen on Wednesday morning hijacked a vessel, Lourdes Tides belonging to the US oil company in Nigeria. The vessel used by Chevron oil company was hijacked as it navigates between Delta and River State.

At the time of the hijacking, 11 staff of Chevron, including a Portuguese and Ukrainian, were reported on board the vessel.

Though a huge ransom has been demanded, but no group is yet to publicly claim responsibility for the latest incident, which precedes so many others in the oil-rich Niger Delta where kidnapping and attacks on oil installations have raised international concerns. In most cases, armed groups kidnap oil workers to line up their pockets by demanding huge ransoms.

Meanwhile, investigations into allegations that Halliburton subsidiary, Kellog Brown & Root, has paid US $180 to some Nigerian officials as kickbacks so that it secured a US $6 billion contract to build a gas liquefying plant in Niger Delta's Bonny Island.

The incident that purportedly took place between 1997 and 2004 is being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, collaboration with investigators from Nigeria, Switzerland and France.

It is reported that the US Secretary of Justice gathered evidence of kickback payments effected by the company managed by the US Vice President, Dick Cheney until 2000, to various parts of the world during the past 20 years.

The erection of the Bonny Island plant has attracted widespread protests in the Ogoniland, with protesters and rights groups complaining of environmental hazards.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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