Seven people, including six foreign workers, have been kidnapped from a ship in Nigeria's Delta state, military and oil industry sources have said.
They said the workers were seized from a cargo ship operating between Europe and Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta.
The hostages included workers from the Philippines and one from Nigeria.
"Six expatriates and one Nigerian were kidnapped off a vessel on Chanomi Creek in Delta state," said a source, who asked not to be named.
The incident brings to nine the number of foreign workers being held hostage in the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
There have been a spate of attacks and kidnappings against foreign workers in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil region.
A sick Italian oil worker who had been kidnapped in the remote creeks in another part of the Niger Delta on December 7 was set free on Friday. But the abductors said they would keep three other foreigners.