All 24 Filipino oil workers kidnapped last month aboard a vessel in southern Nigeria's Delta State were released Tuesday, a government spokesman said.??

The workers' employer, German shipping firm Baco-Liner, had also given a confirmation to the release.

The 24 Filipino workers had been captive in the creeks of the oil-producing Niger Delta since Jan. 20.

Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and the sixth largest oil exporter in the world with a daily output of crude oil of 2.5 million barrels.

Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups in the Delta region have launched dozens of attacks on oil installations.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)