Militants in oil-rich Niger Delta, south Nigeria on Tuesday attacked a Shell oil platform and took 60 workers hostage, a Shell spokesman said.

"Some armed youths shot their way into our facility at Nun River," he said, adding that "they ordered people on the facility to the security post where they are all being held now."

The attack caused the flow station shutdown, which has a daily output of 12,000 barrels of crude.

Shell blamed armed youths from the Oporoma community in Bayelsa State at the mouth of the delta for the attack on its field logistics base and the adjoining Nun river flow station.

Officials from the Bayelsa State government were reportedly negotiating with the attackers to persuade them to set the hostages free and leave the platform.

Shell is Nigeria's largest oil producer whose production accounts for almost half of Nigeria's daily crude output.

Tensions in the Niger Delta have flared in recent months as communities of the oil-rich delta accuse foreign oil companies of reneging on promises to provide jobs and social amenities.

Since the beginning of this month, more than 30 oil workers have been kidnapped and 14 government soldiers killed in the oil production region during firefights between the militants and government troops.

Nigeria is the largest African oil production country or the sixth largest oil exporter in the world with a daily crude output of 2.6 million barrels.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2006)