Hundreds of unarmed Nigerian villagers, including women and children, seized three oil platforms operated by multinational oil companies on Sunday, shutting 90,000 barrels per day of production in a dispute over jobs. Members of the Kula community in the southeastern Rivers state occupied the platforms, operated by Royal Dutch Shell Group and ChevronTexaco, without causing any injuries and had yet to make any demands, company spokesmen said. ?Youths from the Kula community attacked some of our facilities today and forcefully shut them down,? a Shell spokesman said, adding that it had shut 70,000 barrels per day, or bpd, at the Ekulama I and II flow stations.

?Reports indicate that there were 300 people, including men women and children,? a ChevronTexaco spokesman added. The US-based company shut 20,000 bpd at Robertkiri. Disputes between oil multinationals and communities are common in the vast wetlands region that pumps all of Nigeria?s 2.5 million bpd of oil, and often lead to occupations, hostage-taking and sabotage.

In September, a heavily armed ethnic militia threatened to blow up oil facilities in Rivers state, in the eastern delta, helping to drive oil prices above $50 per barrel for the first time, in a dispute over oil money and political power. But that group seems to be unconnected to this action. Oil industry sources said this dispute was over jobs for the Kula community, located near the state border with Bayelsa. ?It?s all down to the Kula community. They want more jobs,? said one industry source, asking not to be named. Millions of impoverished inhabitants of the Niger Delta, largely abandoned by their own government, feel they should benefit more from the huge wealth being pumped from their tribal lands.

?The people were not armed. They just came in large numbers. We still have to find out if they have a genuine grievance,? said a senior Nigerian oil industry source. Oil companies are on alert for a possible surge in violence in the western delta after local elections last week which Ijaw leaders say were massively rigged in favor of their rivals, the Itsekiri. An Ijaw uprising in the run-up to general elections last year forced multinational oil companies to temporarily shut down 40 percent of Nigerian oil production and prompted the government to deploy thousands of troops into the area.

Austin EKEINDE