(Adds Eni statement in paragraph nine)

By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A Lebanese hostage escaped from his captors in the remote creeks of Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta and was not freed as his employer had said, the militant group that seized the man said on Thursday.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had been holding the employee of Agip since Dec. 7, said the Italian oil firm and local authorities who helped him escape on Wednesday would "pay a hefty price for this slight".

"This escape plan, our investigations reveal, was hatched by the Bayelsa state government and partly funded by Agip. (The hostage) was taken from the camp to a nearby boat stationed by the Bayelsa state government," MEND said in a statement.

The group is still holding two Italian employees of Agip who were seized during the same Dec. 7 raid. MEND said it had halted talks about releasing the Italians, who were being closely guarded and would not be released until May at the earliest.

A total of eight foreign hostages are being held by different armed groups in the Niger Delta, where a wave of attacks on the oil industry has shut down a fifth of Nigeria's output and caused thousands of expatriate workers to flee.

MEND said some of the men guarding the hostages were paid as much as 200 million naira ($1.6 million) to help them escape and were also offered contracts in Bayelsa state.

"All participants in this drama will pay a price according to individual level of involvement," MEND said.

"Our response to Agip and the oil industry will follow shortly," the group said, giving no further details.

Eni <ENI.MI>, the Italian energy company that owns Agip, said in a statement it had never paid any money for the release of the hostages.

The chief executive officer of ENI had said on Wednesday that the Lebanese hostage had been freed.

CONTROL OF OIL WEALTH

MEND, a faceless group which emerged in late 2005, says it is fighting for the people of the impoverished delta to gain control of oil revenues. It has made other demands such as the release of jailed leaders from the region and compensation from companies for oil spills.

MEND launched a series of attacks on oil facilities and kidnappings of oil workers last February that stopped production of more than 500,000 barrels per day of crude or a fifth of output from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter. That production remains shut down.

MEND said it had been in talks with a senator over the Lebanese hostage, who would have been freed on Feb. 24. Security around him was almost non-existent, the group said.

"Guards who collaborated with the Bayelsa state government and Agip in this escape were incapable of effecting the release of the Italians as (they) are under careful watch," MEND said.

The Lebanese and three Italians were seized on Dec. 7 during a MEND raid on an Agip oil export terminal at Brass, in Bayelsa state in the heart of the delta. One of the Italians was released on Jan. 18 because of ill health.

MEND is just one of many armed groups active in the Niger Delta, where five decades of oil extraction have yielded huge revenues for the Nigerian government and Western oil majors but few benefits for poor residents.

Poverty and a lack of basic public services due to corruption in government fuel militancy and crime in the lawless region almost the size of England.

(Additional reporting by Jo Winterbottom in Milan)

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