Foreign oil workers freed in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) -- Eight foreign oil workers were released unharmed Saturday, hours after being kidnapped at gunpoint by six men in a speedboat, a Nigerian military spokesman said.

No ransom was paid to obtain the release of the captives, who were freed about 8:30 p.m. local time after being abducted early Saturday morning off a tanker, said state military spokesman Sagir Musa.

He declined to identify the nationalities of the released workers.

Musa also said that two oil workers -- one Nigerian and one Filipino -- were kidnapped Friday in a similar incident.

Late Thursday, five eastern European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish boat in the delta, security sources said on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Kidnappings are common in the West African nation's oil-rich region. Hostages are usually returned unharmed after a ransom is paid.

Despite being the home of vast petroleum reserves, Nigeria's south is as desperately poor as the rest of the country, which is Africa's most populous with 140 million people. Attacks on oil infrastructure have trimmed about a quarter of total oil production in this West African country, helping push world crude prices to historic highs.

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