Nigeria's army is using helicopters to search the creeks around the southern city of Port Harcourt for the group which attacked an oil firm on Tuesday.
Despite the massive manhunt, no arrests have been made yet.
A BBC correspondent in the region says many employees of Italian oil firm Agip have not turned up for work after armed men in speedboats attacked its office.
It is the latest in a string of attacks on oil companies in the Niger Delta, home to most of Nigeria's oil wealth.
Four foreign oil workers were kidnapped in the area, by an armed group demanding the release of two ethnic leaders and more local control of oil resources.
It is not clear which group carried out Tuesday's attacks on the Agip offices...
..At least nine people were killed in the Port Harcourt assault on Agip's riverside offices, reportedly including eight policemen.
UPDATE: Why is unrest in the Nigerian oil fields important to the US? Look here:
Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries) (Thousand Barrels per Day)Nigeria is a huge suppiler of oil to the US. Bigger than Iraq & Kuwait combined. You know, "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE OIL!"
Country Nov-05 Oct-05 YTD 2005 Nov-04 Jan - Nov 2004
CANADA 1,776 1,493 1,619 1,561 1,622
MEXICO 1,658 1,468 1,536 1,604 1,603
SAUDI ARABIA 1,267 1,180 1,438 1,631 1,499
NIGERIA 1,163 1,094 1,049 1,032 1,085
VENEZUELA 1,009 909 1,235 1,237 1,289
ANGOLA 641 501 452 402 306
IRAQ 572 563 532 629 658
COLOMBIA 281 111 158 123 143
KUWAIT 273 271 210 324 245
ALGERIA 265 216 230 240 217
ECUADOR 264 273 270 237 229
UNITED KINGDOM 229 219 237 156 232
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 107 41 71 67 63
NORWAY 103 145 124 105 150
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 70 74 62 32 52
UPDATE: Original story on the Nigeria attack here.
Also an article on an attack on oil workers in Colombia...here.
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