Nigerian gunmen release 8 expats but others still held

By Nick Tattersall

LAGOS (Reuters) - Gunmen in Nigeria released eight foreign oil workers seized from a vessel off the Niger Delta on Saturday but eight other people abducted in separate incidents were still being held, security officials said.

The eight Russian, Latvian and Lithuanian men were seized early on Saturday from a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker off the mouth of the Bonny river in the delta, a network of mangrove creeks which is home to Africa's biggest oil industry.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, military spokesman in the eastern Niger Delta, said the eight had been voluntarily released by their captors.

"They have been released late this evening ... I doubt that any ransom was paid," Musa said, without giving further details.

Private security contractors said the men were thought to have been working for Global Gas and Refining Ltd, a Nigerian subsidiary of U.S.-based Global Energy Inc. run by a prominent local businessman, which may have aided their rapid release.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Insecurity in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter has cut Nigeria's oil output by around a fifth since militants launched a campaign of violent sabotage in early 2006 to press for greater development in their neglected communities.

Despite half a century of oil extraction, most villagers in the Niger Delta remain mired in poverty, while the industry has polluted their land and water.