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PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - The wife of one of two New Zealand men kidnapped from a Nigerian oil rig says she is confident he will be released unharmed.
Gunmen took Bruce Klenner and Brent Goddard from a Shell oil rig in the Niger Delta yesterday.
The other men
kidnapped are Jason Lane from Australia, Lebanese George Saliba and Andreas Gambra from Venezuela.
The five were employed by American oil drilling company Lone Star and working under contract for Shell in Nigeria.
Mr Klenner's wife Linda said Lone Star had told her that sources in Nigeria informed the company the men had not been harmed.
She said it was a nervous time and she would spend the next few days by the telephone but she was confident the situation would be resolved.
The couple had previously talked about the risks involved with the job.
She said: "I think there is risk in any job really, but it's just where it is and the volatility of the place.
"But I just honestly believe it's going to be all right -- you have to."
Mrs Klenner said she was not sure exactly what the kidnappers wanted. "At this stage we don't know. We're just hoping they can get them out and get them home."
She told Radio New Zealand it was Mr Klenner's second stint in Nigeria and that he had been there working month-on, month-off since November last year.
Jonathan Hunt, New Zealand High Commissioner to Britain who is also accredited to Nigeria, said today the men's next of kin had been contacted by Lone Star but there were few details about the motive of the kidnap.
"We don't know who abducted them or if any demands have been received from the kidnappers," Mr Hunt told Radio New Zealand.
He said in his experience Nigeria was a difficult place to deal with and hoped officials there were treating the matter with some urgency.
"When I went to present my credentials there a couple of months ago I came away from Abuja with the impression that it's not the sort of place I would go for a tourist stay," he said.
Lone Star chairman Humphery Idisi said there were many militant groups operating and it was only a matter of time before the group responsible makes demands of the Nigerian government and dialogue begins.
He said history suggests the captives will eventually be freed. "About 200 foreigners have been taken over time and all have been released, so this is unlikely to be any different," he said.
The attack came as the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for most of the attacks that have crippled the Nigerian oil industry, called off a one-month truce.
A MEND spokesman said the group was not involved in the overnight raid on the Royal Dutch Shell rig.
"Early this morning there was an attack on a Shell facility at Soku. Armed men came in several boats, opened fire on security and abducted five expatriates," said an oil industry source in the regional capital Port Harcourt last night.
It was not clear if the attack disrupted oil production. Soku is an island in the coastal area of Rivers state where Shell has several oil rigs, some of which were targeted by militants in the past.
The kidnappings have caused world oil prices to rise to their highest levels in a year. New York crude was selling this morning for $US71.50 a barrel.
The kidnappings raise to 15 the number of foreign hostages being held by different armed groups in the Niger Delta.
News of the attack and of the MEND's decision to call off its truce are a blow to President Umaru Yar'Adua, who came to power on May 29 promising urgent action to bring peace to the oil-producing region.
Thousands of foreigners have fled the region because of a surge in kidnappings. About 200 expatriates have been abducted since early 2006. Most were released unharmed in exchange for ransoms.
Nigeria is the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude oil, but production is down by more than 700,000 barrels per day, or a quarter of total capacity. The outages are mostly due to attacks on oil facilities by the MEND over the past year and a half.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said diplomatic staff were working on the case.He said the New Zealand government had not received any demands but would not comment on whether or not the company had.
He said some of the information the Government had received was sensitive.
"I don't want to prejudice the chance of getting them released," Mr Peters said.
He said people take these kinds of jobs because they are high-paying jobs, but they are also dangerous jobs.
"One hopes that if it's money they want then that would suggest they will be released," Mr Peters said.
A spokesman for the ministry said staff from Australia and Europe are in constant contact with Shell.
He said the ministry will release more information as it comes to hand.
- REUTERS, NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF, NEWSTALK ZB
* One of the NZ men was earlier wrongly named as Gottard Brene.
