Nigerian oil delta kidnappers free Dutch hostage

AMSTERDAM, July 10 (Reuters) A Dutchman abducted last week while working on an unfinished Shell gas plant in Nigeria's violent oil-producing Niger Delta has been freed, his employer Royal Boskalis Westminster today said.

Gunmen seized Michael Los on July 6 from a houseboat after disarming police on guard. It was the latest in a series of attacks on the oil and gas industry that have shut down a quarter of Nigeria's crude output since February.

Boskalis said Los was in good health and would be repatriated to the Netherlands later this week.

''Both the Dutch embassy and the government of Bayelsa state have contributed substantially to his release,'' the firm said, but gave no details of the terms of the release.

Authorities in Bayelsa, where the kidnapping took place, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Attacks on oil facilities or abductions of oil workers by groups who accuse oil companies of failing to meet community development pledges are frequent in the Niger Delta. Most hostages are freed unharmed.

Oil companies deny paying ransoms but local activists say the practice is common and fuels the cycle of kidnappings.

The impoverished delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry, has been plagued by violence for years. Many local people feel cheated out of the wealth being pumped from their lands and creeks, and their resentment fuels militancy.

A breakdown in law and order in the impenetrable delta, combined with easy access to guns, struggles for control of a lucrative oil smuggling business and corruption among politicians and security forces have worsened the violence.

Reuters SY DB2239