day ultimatum has been given to them. If the SPDC (the Nigerian unit of Shell) does not comply immediately, we are going to take over all the oil installations that are around the area." Shell had no immediate comment on the kidnappings. Last year, a group calling itself the Iduwini Youths kidnapped a Croatian and 15 Nigerian oil workers in a raid on a vessel operated by Seabulk, a U.S. subcontractor to Shell. They were all released. The German ambassador to Nigeria, Dietmar Kreusel, said he was working to sort out the situation. "We do not have a clear-cut statement telling us what they want us to do or what they hope to achieve. We don't know what the demand is. We are trying to sort it out," he said. The threat of violence in the eastern side of the Niger Delta last year drove oil prices to a new record above $50 per barrel, while ethnic clashes between Ijaw and Itsekiri in 2003 forced multinationals to evacuate, closing 40 percent of Nigeria's output.
