LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) – Negotiations for the release of six oil workers, two Germans and four Nigerians, taken hostage in Nigeria’s volatile, oil-rich south by young ethnic Ijaw youths began yesterday, various sources said.

The six men work for Bilfinger Berger Gas and Oil Services Ltd (BetB), an affiliate of German construction giant Julius Berger which provides services to oil and gas companies, especially Shell, in the Niger Delta region.

They were “kidnapped on the high seas between Delta and Bayelsa States Wednesday morning,” Julius Berger spokesman Clement Iloba told AFP. The two states on the Gulf of Guinea are part of the oil heartland of Africa’s largest producer.

“The (Bayelsa) state governor has directed that the hostages be released immediately and we are very hopeful that they will be released in no distant time,” his spokesman Preye Wariowei told AFP.

“The government has dispatched a high-powered team to effect the release of the hostages. The team included senior government officials, legislators and local council officials. They will travel to Bomadi town by car and make the remaining journey to the Amatu community where the hostages are being held by boat,” he said.

The negotiating team was at 8:00pm (1900 GMT) yet to return to give a report on their mission, Wariwei told AFP.

But he expressed hope that the mission to secure the release of the hostages would be successful.

“They (hostage-takers) are complaining about non-implementation of an agreement they had with a big foreign oil company on development of their area,” Wariowei said.

“Government feels embarrassed by this incident which was caused by Shell’s refusal to implement an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) it entered into with the Amatu community”, an official statement from the office of Bayelsa State governor said.