Posted by Reuters on
All Royal Dutch Shell contractors kidnapped in Nigeria this week have been freed by their captors, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
LONDON (Reuters) - All Royal Dutch Shell contractors kidnapped in Nigeria this week have been freed by their captors, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Militants on Monday abducted about 25 Nigerian staff of a Shell contractor and killed at least 10 soldiers in a raid on a convoy of boats supplying oilfields in the Niger Delta.
No production was affected in the attack, the company said.
"All the contractors have been released," the Shell spokeswoman said.
Militant attacks and pipeline leaks have cut roughly a quarter of production for Africa's biggest oil producer.
In a separate attack, suspected Nigerian militants on Tuesday invaded a residential compound for foreign oil workers, killing two guards and kidnapping at least five expatriates.
The workers were taken from the compound in Eket, close to the operational base of Exxon Mobil, which exports about 800,000 barrels a day from Africa's top oil producer.
The series of attacks ended a period of relative quiet in the Niger Delta, which accounts for all oil output from the world's eighth biggest exporter.