Pirates boarded an oil industry supply vessel off Nigeria yesterday and seized three French seamen, in the second hostage drama for French energy workers in West Africa in less than a week.

The men’s employer, French maritime services firm Bourbon, and the French foreign ministry said they had contacted the kidnapped workers’ families and were working with Nigerian authorities to secure their release.

A spokesman for the Nigerian military taskforce deployed to protect the west African giants’s oil industry confirmed the attack, but said that in total four hostages were taken.

Yesterday’s drama came just six days after five French nationals working in neighbouring Niger’s uranium fields were kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants, in an unrelated attack that has already stretched French assets in the region.

The workers were abducted when pirates equipped with several speedboats attacked the French-flagged Bourbon Alexandre, a 2,000-tonne tug and supply ship working in waters off Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region.

“The 13 other crew members have remained on board and nobody has been injured. No claim has been made at this stage,” Bourbon said in a statement.