Nigerian women agree to end weeklong standoff

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria -- Women holding 700 ChevronTexaco workers in a southeast Nigeria oil terminal agreed Monday to end their siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to build schools and electrical and water systems.

Representatives said the women would wait until the verbal agreement was put in writing and signed before leaving the Escravos facility.

"It is settled. We stay today, but once the paper is signed, we will leave," said Anunu Uwawah, a protest leader.

ChevronTexaco executive Dick Filgate said he hoped the deal would be finalized as early as Tuesday.

The takeover began last week and trapped hundreds of American, Canadian, British and Nigerian oil workers inside the facility. It also shut down the terminal, which exports half a million barrels of oil daily and accounts for the bulk of the company's Nigeria production.

The women have occupied the facility since they sneaked inside July 8, blocking the airstrip, helipad and dock that provide the only exits.

The women, most of whom are middle-aged or elderly, allowed more than 200 oil workers to leave in ferries on Sunday.

Oil site takeovers are common in Nigeria, the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil, and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.

But this protest is a departure for Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, where armed men routinely resort to kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil multinationals into giving them jobs or protection money.

or compensation for alleged environmental damage. Hostages generally are released unharmed.