THISDAYonline

Some British oilmen, who were taken hostage for two weeks by striking Nigerian oil workers in Rivers State, are considering legal action to get compensation for the stress and trauma they claimed they suffered as a result of their ordeal.

About 12 of the affected Britons have started consultations with legal representatives of the North Sea Oil Workers Union (OILC), after returning home last week to their relieved families.

Jake Molloy, the general secretary of the OILC, said the British oilmen caught up in the strike had been left completely traumatised by their ordeal.

"At least a dozen oil workers are considering taking legal action and I would anticipate that number will increase," he said.

"It will be for the lawyers to decide the grounds of legal action, but the men I have spoken to are in quite a state as a result of the stress and trauma they suffered" he added.

Molloy said it was almost certain the legal action would be raised in the United States courts and could involve Transocean, Shell or TotalFinaElf - the two companies which had chartered the rigs, or the contract companies which directly employed some of the British nationals.

"The situation they found themselves in was very, very scary. The men I have spoken to have no intention at all of going back to Nigeria" he said.

"Some of them have been there for several years and have never seen anything like this before - and they believe it is only going to get worse.

"Tensions have been building and building and building, and the situation they are facing out there is beyond belief" he concluded.

A total of 35 British oilmen were among the 97 foreign nationals caught up in the tense, two-week siege on board the four drilling rigs.

They were freed earlier this month after top-level talks between the rigs' operator, Trans-ocean; the Nigerian Government; and leaders of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

The oilmen's ordeal began on 16 April, on board the rig MG Hulme, when Nigerian oilworkers staged a wildcat strike following Transoceans decision to sack five NUPENG officials.

Three days later, the action spread to three other oil rigs, Sedco 709, Trident VI and Trident VIII.

Some of the strikers armed themselves with fire axes and used empty oil-drums and containers to prevent helicopters landing on the rigs.

At the height of the increasingly volatile dispute, Nigerian strikers on one of the rigs threatened to blow up the installation.