Three foreign oil workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt.
Police and industry sources said the abduction of the employees of Italian oil contractor Saipem was sparked by a dispute between the company and a community where it is working and that efforts were under way to secure their release.
"The matter is being worked on and is moving towards positive results," Rivers State Police Commissioner Samuel Agbetuyi told Reuters by telephone, adding that one suspected kidnapper had been arrested.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has waged a campaign of attacks against the oil industry in the world's eighth largest exporter, said it was not involved in the kidnapping.
Industry sources said the three men were travelling in two SUVs with a police escort when they were stopped by gunmen, who disarmed their security.
They were taken from the cars to a nearby boat on one of the multitude of mangrove-lined creeks that runs through the vast wetlands region.