Eight foreign workers have been kidnapped in a raid on an offshore oil rig in Nigeria.
Six of those taken hostage at 8am local time today are Britons, one is a Canadian and the eighth is a US citizen.
It was not immediately clear if the kidnappings were linked to a campaign of attacks on the oil industry by a militant group that has shut down a quarter of Opec member Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels per day production of crude oil since February.
"The group that are holding the eight men are seeking negotiations with the local representative of the client company," spokeswoman Sheena Wallace for British-based Dolphin Drilling Ltd said. She said she did not know who the kidnappers were.
Ms Wallace said there were 84 crew on the rig at the time of the attack, and that the others were safe and still aboard.
The Bulford Dolphin rig is an exploration rig that is not expected to produce any crude oil for several years.
The bulk of Nigeria's oil is pumped onshore or in shallow water in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region where poverty, a lucrative trade in stolen crude, a breakdown in law and order, and corruption have fuelled militancy and unrest.
As the Niger Delta has become increasingly dangerous, oil companies have moved towards offshore production as deepwater facilities are deemed easier to protect. However, attacks like the one on the Bulford Dolphin rig suggest some local groups are equipped and organised for attacks far from land.
There was no immediate indication of any link to a series of attacks and abductions by the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands greater local control of oil revenues.
The timing of the attack is embarrassing for Nigerian authorities and particularly the navy, which was due to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary with an international fleet review by President Olusegun Obasanjo in Lagos later today.
MEND's attacks contributed to several spikes in world oil prices. Nigeria is the world's eighth-biggest exporter of oil and the fifth largest supplier to the United States.