Two armed groups have lifted separate sieges of two oilfield stations in Nigeria, releasing more than 20 local workers, it was revealed today.
About 18 staff at Agip's Tebidaba oilfield in Bayelsa state were released on Tuesday after five days in captivity, while five at Shell's nearby Nun River facility were freed on the same day after a 12-day siege.
A Shell spokesman said the company had begun to resume production of 14,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Nun River, but industry sources said Agip's Tebidaba facility had not resumed its 40,000 bpd output.
Another four oil workers - three Italians and one Lebanese - are still being held hostage by a different armed group after an attack on Agip's Brass River export terminal on December 7th.
Agip is a unit of Italian oil giant Eni whose chief executive visited President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday to discuss the crisis.
A company spokesmen said it was unclear what led to the lifting of the two oilfield sieges, but that talks with the attackers were led by the state government and involved elders from nearby villages.
The attackers had demanded money, jobs and infrastructure for their communities in the remote region of mangrove-lined creeks and swamp in southern Nigeria.
The four foreign Agip staff are being held by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which says it has spurned ransom offers and wants the Nigerian government to release two jailed leaders from the region. It has threatened to keep the men for six months.
Kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities have become an almost weekly occurrence in the world's eighth largest exporter in the run-up to landmark elections in April.
Western oil companies last week evacuated hundreds of dependants of expatriate staff after two car bombings by MEND at oil company compounds in the regional capital Port Harcourt.
Senior industry executives say the rising tide of violence could force them to withdraw from some areas completely. Shell has already shut down its entire oil operation in the western side of the delta after a series of attacks in February which cut the Opec nation's oil output by a fifth.
Violence in the delta is rooted in poverty and neglect by the government, which has failed to convert the region's huge resources into improved living conditions for its inhabitants.