Two American Oil Workers Slain

Two American oil workers were killed by unidentified gunmen in a speedboat who fired on a vessel carrying the employees in Nigeria's violence-wracked oil delta, an army spokesman said Saturday.

Nigerian army spokesman Maj. Said Ahmed said the unidentified oil workers were killed Friday evening on a waterway in the Niger Delta, where the bulk of Nigeria's oil is drilled.

Ahmed did not identify the men or their employer, saying "details are still sketchy."

U.S. oil giant ChevronTexaco's Nigerian subsidiary said that two American oil contractors were "missing" along with four Nigerians - two navy soldiers and two boatmen - following what the firm said was an "unprovoked attack" on Friday at 5 p.m. local time on the Benin River, south of the oil city of Warri.

The company has "no conclusive proof" yet the two missing Americans are dead, company spokesman Deji Haastrup said. A third American, a ChevronTexaco employee, was in "stable condition" in a hospital after sustaining gunshot wounds, he added.

"It was very shocking and it took us by complete surprise," Haastrup said.

"We are in total darkness as to what could be the motive," he added.

The oil workers had been inspecting ChevronTexaco oil and gas facilities at Dibi and Olero Creek, among dozens of installations abandoned by the company since an outbreak of ethnic violence in March 2003.

The operation was in preparation to "return to these swamp locations," Sola Omole, another company, said.

ChevronTexaco's idle installations would normally produce 140,000 barrels of oil a day.

Militants and thugs carry out attacks on multinational oil facilities in the Niger Delta in a bid to extort payoffs from the companies.

While foreigners are rarely killed, hundreds of Nigerian civilians and combatants have died in ethnic violence pitting rival Ijaw and Itsekiri militants battling for a share of oil revenues doled out by oil multinationals and the Nigerian government.

Friday's shooting came three days after Ijaws and Itsekiris threatened to escalate hostilities following the shooting deaths of 10 market vendors and children among dozens of civilians traveling to their village. Ahmed, the military spokesman, said Itsekiri gunmen were believed responsible for that attack.

Last weekend, five Ijaw assailants carrying pump-action shotguns were killed by the navy while trying to storm an oil facility owned by Agip, a division of Italy's ENI SpA.