Kidnappers in Nigeria demanded a 'huge ransom' on Monday for the release of two oil workers, an American and a Briton, who were taken hostage last on Thursday, a source close to the negotiators said.
"Today, to our surprise, they demanded a huge ransom, I mean cash," said the source, who asked not to be named, while in another development an unidentified armed group shut down an Italian oil facility in the same southern state.
Before on Monday, the source said, local authorities and the kidnappers had "reached a point of agreement on their initial demands for social amenities such as water, roads, schools, electricity and scholarships."
Meanwhile, an armed gang on Monday forced the closure of an oil flowstation owned by Italy's Agip in the volatile Niger Delta region, causing a cut in production of 55,000 barrels per day (bpd), an Agip official said.
"A total of 55,000 bpd were shut in as a result of the forced closure of the Tebidaba flowstation in Bayelsa State," said the official, who also requested anonymity.
"There were 48 persons -- all local staff -- on the flowstation when it was invaded by the protesters," said the official, declining to comment on whether any of the Nigerian workers were being held by the gang.
The raid came only three days after the US consulate warned on Friday that it had learned a militant group may have completed plans for concerted attacks on oil facilities in the delta.
Attacks on oil installations, kidnappings of foreigners and sometimes killings of Nigerian oil workers, are carried out by armed groups that claim to be seeking a larger share of the oil wealth and jobs for the local community.
The kidnapped US and British nationals, who work for Norwegian oil services firm Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), were abducted in Bayelsa State.
They were taken by armed men from the vessel HD Commander while it was anchored near the Funiwa platform, off the coast of Bayelsa State, the PGS company had said in an official statement.
On Monday, the source close to negotiations said that the secretary to the Bayelsa State government was talking to the kidnappers.
"We are trying to persuade the hostage-takers to drop their demand for a ransom because it is against the policy of the federal government," the source told AFP.
"If we offer money demanded, there would not be an end to hostage-taking saga in the region," he said, adding that it was "very possible" that the two hostages would be set free later on Monday.
PGS, which provides seismic data for oil and gas companies, said the two were kidnapped in the early hours of on Thursday.
The firm said its other crew members were uninjured but specified that it was nonetheless taking measures to ensure their safety.
This is the second kidnapping affecting the company. A similar incident took place on June 20, when two Filippino workers, Joseph Doctolero and Pacifico Gajo, were kidnapped by six armed men near Port Harcourt, the hub of the Niger Delta oil industry.
The men were contract employees for a firm called Beaufort International and were abducted from a vessel manoeuvring in a channel of the Delta. They were released on June 25.
The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), which has claimed responsibility for several abductions of foreign oil workers in the past, told AFP that it was not involved in last week's kidnapping.
"It is a community-related dispute and (has) nothing to do with us," MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo told AFP in an email.
"They are being held in a community over a dispute concerning (US oil firm) Chevron. I am certain they will soon be released," he said.
Since January, separatists and armed groups seeking benefits from the oil wealth for the Delta's 14-million strong ethnic Ijaw community have been blamed for a spate of violent attacks on multinational oil firms and their personnel.