Armed men storm Korean firm in Nigeria's delta

YENAGOA, Nigeria, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Around 20 armed men stormed the headquarters of a South Korean oil services company in Nigeria's lawless delta and stole more than $300,000, police said on Sunday, in the latest attack on foreign firms. The group arrived by speed boat and forced their way into the compound of Daewoo Nigeria Limited, a unit of South Korea's Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co Ltd <047040.KS>, on Saturday before escaping with some 40 million naira ($307,000) into the maze of tidal creeks, a police spokeswoman said.

There were no casualties. Police are investigating whether the attack was the work of ethnic Ijaw militants who abducted four foreign oil workers 18 days ago and have crippled a tenth of Nigeria's production in a six-week campaign of violence.

"We are still investigating this attack because the circumstances surrounding it are still not clear," Ireju Barasua, spokeswoman for Rivers State police told Reuters.

The raid came only five days after nine men were killed during a suspected armed robbery at the delta headquarters of Italian oil company Agip, a unit of ENI .

With armed robbery increasingly common in the delta, it was not immediately clear whether Saturday's attack was the work of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which seeks more local control over the area's vast oil resources.

The group abducted the four men -- a Briton, an America, a Honduran and a Bulgarian -- from a Royal Dutch Shell oilfield 18 days ago. It is demanding the release of two Ijaw leaders and $1.5 billion in pollution compensation to local villages from Shell, the largest producer in the delta.

The movement's campaign has forced Shell to withdraw 500 employees and cut its output by 221,000 barrels a day, or nearly a tenth of the output from the world's eighth largest exporter.

UNION THREAT

Oil unions have threatened to withdraw from the delta, which pumps almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day of oil, if the security situation deteriorates further.

With oil markets already nervous over diplomatic tensions between the West and Iran, the unrest in Nigeria's oil heartland has helped lift prices to four-month highs of over $67 a barrel.

Dozens of people have been killed in the movement's attacks on two major oil export pipelines and two oil production platforms since Dec. 20.

While President Olusegun Obasanjo has said talks with the militants over the hostages are making progress, oil industry insiders say the government has lost credibility after a week of predicting the imminent release of the hostages.

"There have been some incidents which held up the release, but we believe it will be any day now," said a spokesman for the government of Bayelsa state, one of six delta regions.

A spokesman for an Ijaw group participating in negotiations with the hostage takers said talks had been stymied by the arrest of three Ijaw activists last week.

"The hostages are very, very hale and healthy," said Kime Engozu, spokesman for the Niger Delta People's Volunteers Force.

Obasanjo this week downplayed any effect on investment in Africa's largest oil producer, but analysts fear it may deter foreign workers from coming to Nigeria and hamper major new projects, including the licensing of new fields.

Some of the kidnappers' grievances are echoed by delta politicians, who are vying with other geo-political zones for the ruling party's presidential nomination.

The nature of the militants' demands suggests the violence is unlikely to abate ahead of national elections in 2007, analysts say. An delta uprising before 2003 polls shut in 40 percent of Nigeria's oil production.