Call for UK oil firms to quit Niger Delta amid talks to free kidnapped Scot

AN OFFSHORE union leader yesterday called on all British oil companies to pull out of the volatile Niger Delta region - as desperate efforts continued to free a Scottish oil worker.

Gordon Gray was kidnapped four days ago by a gang of Nigerian rebels.

Militants armed with AK47 assault rifles stormed the Bulford Dolphin drilling rig, about 40 miles off the Nigerian coast.

Mr Gray, of Crieff, is employed by Aberdeen-based Dolphin Drilling. The father of one has managed to speak to representatives of the Nigerian oil company which is trying to secure his release, assuring them that he is safe and well.

But as negotiations continued yesterday, Graham Tran, a regional officer of Amicus, one of the North Sea's major unions, demanded a complete withdrawal of British companies from the region until the safety of foreign workers can be guaranteed.

Mr Tran said the lead in declaring the Niger Delta a "no-go" area had already been taken by Aberdeen-based PSN, one of Scotland's largest private firms with more than 8,000 staff.

He added: "How many more people have to be killed or kidnapped before other companies get the message?"

In June last year, two Scottish oil workers were amongst the eight foreign workers who were kidnapped in an earlier attack by armed rebels on the same drilling platform.

Last October, three Scottish oilmen were held hostage for 18 terrifying days in a Nigerian swamp after a gang of militants stormed a contractors' compound near Port Harcourt.

And, last November, an oil worker from Teesside was killed during a bungled rescue attempt after being taken hostage from an oil-supply ship off the Nigerian coast.

A spokesman for Dolphin drilling said: "The fact is that the rigs out there are more secure than they are practically anywhere else in the world."