March 4 (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped a German construction worker and killed a soldier on Tuesday in the oil producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, security experts working for foreign companies said. More than 200 foreigners have been abducted, and mostly released in exchange for money, in the region where crime and militancy surged until late 2007 when there was a lull. Below is a chronology of some major attacks and kidnappings involving the Nigerian oil industry in the last six months. July 5, 2007 - A 3-year-old British child, Margaret Hill, is abducted in Port Harcourt. She is released on July 8. -- July 7 - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell says one of its teams was attacked in Rivers state and two Nigerian workers taken hostage. The Nigerians are released on July 11. -- July 12 - Francis Samuel Amadi, the 3-year-old son of a traditional ruler in the community of Iriebe, is kidnapped near Port Harcourt. He is released the next day. -- Aug. 8 - Kidnappers release a Bulgarian and a Briton, employees of British oil company Exprogroup. They were abducted on July 8 from a barge near Calabar in Cross River state. -- Aug. 28 - A Pakistani manager at a construction site run by Italian firm Gitto is released. He had been kidnapped on July 31 near Bodo in the Ogoni area of Rivers state. -- Sept. 23 - Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) says it will recommence attacks on oil installations and abduction of expatriates following the arrest of leader, Henry Okah, on arms trafficking on Sept. 3. -- Oct. 5 - David Ward, a British manager from oil services firm Hydrodive in Port Harcourt, kidnapped on Aug. 10, is freed by Nigerian troops. -- Oct. 10 - A Colombian and a Filipino, kidnapped on Sept. 27 in a raid on oil services company Saipem, are released. A Colombian colleague was shot dead during the abduction. -- Oct 20 - Seven workers, four Nigerians and three contractors to Royal Dutch Shell, a Russian, a Briton, and a Croat, are kidnapped at the EA field off the coast of Bayelsa state by gunmen in speedboats. All are freed two days later. -- Oct 30 - Six Indian and Polish hostages, seized on Oct. 26, are freed. They were taken from the Mystras vessel, an offshore oil production facility operated by Saipem. MEND had claimed responsibility for the attack. March 4, 2008 - A German employee of German-Nigerian construction group Julius Berger, an arm of Bilfinger Berger AG, is kidnapped between the Rumuji and Emuoha areas of Port Harcourt. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT A plume of smoke rises from an oil tanker after an explosion in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, January 11, 2008. Militants fighting for autonomy in Nigeria's oil-producing south ...
