A north-east oil worker has told of his terror as six speedboats full of armed militants attacked his ship 75 miles off the coast of Nigeria.
The man, who does not want to be named over fears for his job, said that workers on board the Shell Bonga floating production storage and off-loading vessel watched in fear as the militia used sledgehammers to try and smash in a door on the huge vessel.
�They were smashing this door for ages with sledgehammers, but one padlock held on � we are very lucky it did,� he said.
The militants first tried to climb over the side of the vessel, but were unable to because of the grease.
They then turned their attention to the rear of the ship, where there is an entrance covered by huge steel doors.
The worker continued: �They were spraying the accommodation with heavy fire and there are bullet holes all over the back end of the ship.
�One of the lifeboats is holed, but we survived them getting in the accommodation, otherwise we would be captive.�
Workers have since resigned over fears that the militants will return and attack the facility again.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has accepted responsibility for the attack, which happened last month, saying that they wanted to send out a message to companies that offshore oil facilities are not safe from their attacks.
The group says it is fighting for a greater share of the tens of billions of pounds of oil revenue generated by their impoverished region.
Until now, the group has mainly blown up oil pipelines and kidnapped expatriate workers in the shallow creeks of southern Nigeria.
However, it said the attack may not be its last in deep waters.
Earlier this month, the UK Government said it would be �reckless� for Brits to remain in Nigeria without proper security advice.
The Foreign Office first urged workers to return home in June last year after officials ruled the security risk in the trouble-torn Niger Delta region was too severe.
Since then, some firms have withdrawn workers, but around 250 Scottish oil workers are still thought to be in Nigeria, about half of them from the north-east.
Kidnapping of foreign workers are common in the lawless delta, which produces around 2.5million barrels of crude oil a day for Nigeria.
Since January 2006, some 36 Britons and more than 180 foreigners have been kidnapped. One Briton was killed.