Nigerian Oil Facility Seized, Hostages Taken

Attackers with automatic rifles overran a navy base and occupied a nearby oil facility Tuesday in Nigeria’s restive south, holding dozens of troops and oil workers hostage, officials said.

Hafiz Ringim, police commissioner for southern Bayelsa state, said no deaths were immediately reported.

The gunmen were holding an unspecified number of troops at the base, and government negotiators were in contact with the hostage takers, Ringim said. A spokesman for a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell said about 60 workers were also being held.

“We have been able to speak to them and everyone is OK, but they are not able to leave,” said the spokesman, Bisi Ojediran. The attack cut production by about 12,000 barrels per day, he said. None of the delta’s main militant groups claimed responsibility for the violence.

A series of attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria have cut more than a quarter of the West African nation’s normal 2.5-million-barrel daily production so far this year.