An Italian oil worker kidnapped last week in Nigeria has been freed, a spokeswoman for Italy’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Militants have launched a series of attacks this year that have cut Nigerian oil output by 25 percent.
Following is a chronology of some major attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in 2006.
— Jan. 10 – Militants kidnap four oil workers at gunpoint from Shell’s offshore E.A. oilfield. Shell shuts the 115,000 bpd E.A. platform. The four workers are freed 20 days later.
— Militants blow up crude oil pipeline, cutting supplies to Forcados export terminal by 100,000 bpd.
— Feb. 18 – Militants in speedboats storm a barge operated by U.S. oil services company Willbros and abduct nine workers. Six are released on March 1, three on March 27.
— The militants also blow up a Shell crude oil pipeline and a gas pipeline operated by state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., and bomb Shell’s Forcados tanker loading platform.
— March 18 – Attackers blow up oil pipeline operated by Italian company Agip, shutting down 75,000 bpd.
— May 10 – A U.S. oil executive employed by Baker Hughes is killed in Port Harcourt.
— May 11 – An Italian is among three workers, employees of Italian oil contractor Saipem, kidnapped from a car. They are freed the next day.
— June 2 – Eight foreign oil workers are abducted from the Bulford Dolphin oil rig off southern Nigeria. They are released two days later.
— June 7 – Militants attack a Shell-operated natural gas facility in the Niger Delta, kidnapping five South Korean contractors. Militants free them the next day after a plea by the jailed leader in whose name the Koreans were abducted.
— June 20 – Two Filipinos with Beaufort International are kidnapped near Port Harcourt. They are freed five days later.
— July 6 – Gunmen seize Dutchman Michael Los in Bayelsa in the Niger Delta. He is freed four days later.
— July 25 – Attackers from nearby village seize the Agip Ogbainbiri flow station in southern Nigeria, taking 24 workers hostage. They leave on July 31 after being paid off by the government. Agip says lost output was 170,000 barrels.
— Aug 3 – German Guido Schiffarth, an employee of Bilfinger and Berger, kidnapped in Port Harcourt, is released on Aug 19.
— Aug 4 – Gunmen abduct three Filipino oil workers from a bus near Port Harcourt. They are released 10 days later.
— Aug 9 – Two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers are kidnapped and freed six days later.
— Aug 10 – Two contractors, a Belgian and a Moroccan, are kidnapped in Port Harcourt. Both are released on Aug. 14.
— Aug 13 – Five foreign oil workers are kidnapped from a nightclub in Port Harcourt, two Britons, a German, an Irishman and a Pole. An American has also been kidnapped.
— Aug 16 – A Lebanese man is kidnapped on a road near the border between Rivers and Bayelsa states.
— Aug 24 – An Italian oil worker employed by Saipem is seized by gunmen in Port Harcourt. He is freed five days later.