Gunmen attack ships at Nigeria oil loading platform

Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:37pm GMT

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LAGOS (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked several oil services vessels at Nigeria's Bonny crude oil loading platform late on Saturday, opening fire and abducting several crew members, a security source working in the industry said.

The source said gunmen opened fire on an oil tanker at the facility but were unable to board the vessel. They then attacked a tugboat and two service boats, one of which was later found drifting with its crew apparently abducted.

The Bonny crude oil loading platform is operated by SPDC, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), but none of the vessels were believed to be owned by Shell.

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