Nigerian gunmen have vacated an Agip oil pumping station in the remote creeks of the Niger Delta after a two-week siege and released close to 40 hostages, a government official said on Monday.
Armed militants and villagers invaded the Tebidaba flow station in Bayelsa state on Nov. 6 demanding compensation for oil spills. They later demanded ransoms.
“They vacated the flow station yesterday morning. They released close to 40 Agip staff, soldiers and naval personnel. All were in good health,” said Victor Akenge, a member of the Bayelsa state government.
Akenge denied newspaper reports that large sums of money had changed hands to end the siege.
“We negotiated with them and they finally saw reason. They have made their point. They want development for their community and it is no use asking for money,” he said.
Hostage takings are frequent in the lawless Niger Delta, which accounts for all of Nigeria’s 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil output. Ransoms are usually paid although government officials and oil companies often deny this.
Agip, a unit of Italy’s Eni , has lost about 50,000 bpd at Tebidaba since the siege began. Akenge said the facility was not damaged but production had not yet resumed.
An Agip spokesman in Lagos said he did not have any information while Eni spokesmen in Milan were not immediately available for comment.
Prior to the attack on Tebidaba, OPEC member Nigeria was already losing at least 500,000 bpd in oil production following a string of militant attacks in February.
Disputes between communities and oil firms are common in the impoverished delta, an impenetrable wetlands region almost the size of England, and often lead to invasions of oil facilities.
Such disputes are just one element of recurring violence in the delta, where poor villagers have seen few benefits from almost 50 years of oil extraction that has yielded huge revenues for the faraway federal government and for oil firms.
Attacks on pipelines and pumping stations, theft of crude oil and abductions of expatriate workers are also commonplace.