To free the hostages is first priority - Shell Nigeria
Posted: 30 January 2006
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Shell is seeking a quick solution to Nigeria's hostage crisis after four employees and one of its contractors were kidnapped earlier this month, the company's chief executive said Thursday.
"We have a hostage situation on which all parties (are working) very well together to find a solution as quickly as possible," Jeroen van der Veer told Dow Jones Newswires. "And of course the total security situation is very much on the attention of the government," the CEO added.
Four Shell contractors were kidnapped two weeks ago in the oil-rich Niger Delta and their captors have threatened to kill them if the government attempts a rescue effort.
"The hostage situation is, of course, a very difficult situation and I think the first priority is now to free the hostages," he said.
The comments followed an attack Tuesday at the offices of Italian energy firm Agip SpA that left nine people dead before the assailants fled by speedboat.
Earlier attacks over the past month on platforms and pipelines have killed dozens of soldiers and civilians and cut 10% of daily oil output in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter.
"Later, together, I assume the government and the industry will sit down and see what we can do," van der Veer added.
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