Nigerian Police Rescue Oil Workers Seized Near Southern Oil Hub

LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigerian police rescued 14 oil workers kidnapped near the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt following a gun fight with the abductors, an official said.

“The oil workers were rescued unhurt” after the gunmen abandoned them and fled during the gun battle with the police, Nnamdi Omoni, a police spokesman, said by phone from Port Harcourt on Monday.

The 14 employees of Nestoil Ltd., a Nigerian company, were seized on Sept. 1, when armed assailants took over a bus in which they were traveling. Violence targeting the petroleum industry has been on the rise this year after militant groups resumed attacks on installations, cutting the country’s crude output to the lowest in three decades.