Nigerian militants launched a string of attacks in the world?s eighth largest oil exporter on Saturday, abducting nine foreign workers, bombing a major oil export platform and sabotaging two pipelines. Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados tanker terminal, a senior industry source said, cutting at least 16 % of Nigeria?s 2.4 m barrels of daily supply to world markets. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said the attacks were a response to military air raids on villages in Delta state earlier this week and would be followed by another wave of violence ?on a grander scale?. ?These hostages are human shields. Subsequent attacks on other installations will be drastic as we have no intentions of taking hostages," the militants said, calling on all oil workers to leave the delta.

The militants said they wanted more local control over the Niger Delta?s vast oil wealth and the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders, including a militia leader who is on trial for treason. ?Expatriates must realise that they have been caught up in a war and the Nigerian government can do nothing to guarantee the security of anyone.?

In military-style pre-dawn attacks, militants in six speed boats stormed an offshore barge operated by US oil services company Willbros and abducted nine workers ? three Americans, one Briton, two Thais, two Egyptians and a Filipino. They caused an explosion and fire on the Forcados loading platform, which delivers crude oil through pipes to large buoys where tankers load. They blew up a major Shell crude oil pipeline nearby, and another pipeline taking natural gas to a refinery in northern Nigeria operated by state-run Nigeria National Petroleum Corp, militant and oil industry sources said.

Shell began to close oilfields feeding the Forcados terminal but the full impact of the attacks was not immediately clear. The company had already shut 106,000 barrels a day of output from the Forcados area because of an attack in January. The militants warned Shell not to try to repair the offshore loading platform, threatening a more brutal attack.

Militants said these attacks were focused on Delta state, which accounts for about a quarter of Nigerian output, in response to military air raids on Wednesday and Friday.

Tom ASHBY