By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Seafarers' unions are urging shipping firms to grant crews emergency rights such as war-risk bonuses for operating in Nigerian waters, where merchant ships have come under attack.

The demand from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) follows advice from a Philippine government agency that Filipino crews should avoid Nigerian ports.

Mounting concern among crews manning supply ships and oil tankers to the West African nation could push up shipping costs and spell trouble for an oil and gas sector already rocked by violence and civil unrest.

Gunmen on Monday attacked at least two energy industry ships in Nigeria, killing one sailor on a naval escort vessel. It was the second wave of armed attacks in two months on merchant shipping in Nigeria's busiest oil and gas export hub.

The ITF has written to a major employers' group, the International Maritime Employers Committee (IMEC), urging firms to recognise the dangers for crews operating in Nigeria.

IMEC represents over 100 international shipping firms operating 5,500 vessels and employing 145,000 seafarers of all nationalities.

The ITF, which on Friday called for Nigerian waters to be declared a war zone, wants bosses to grant employees emergency rights, which could include war-risk bonuses and other special contractual arrangements that reflect exceptional risk.

"It could mean they have the right to say: 'I don't want to work in those waters'...and it will affect compensation should they get killed opearting there," said ITF spokesman Sam Dawson.

The ITF wants mariners to get the same contractual rights as crews operating in pirate-infested waters off Somalia.

PORT BAN

Pressure on maritime employers is building after it emerged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration ordered Filipino crew not to enter any Nigerian port, on or offshore, to ensure security. The ban, announced in December, remains in force, unions said on Tuesday.

The ITF, an umbrella group representing 186 maritime unions and some 700,000 seafarers, said the decree was significant because some 40 percent of the world's seafarers are Filipino.

Two weeks ago the powerful ship officers' union Nautilus, representing 25,000 British and Dutch officers, also called for Nigerian waters to be classed as a war zone.

The move came after Danish shipper A.P. Moller-Maersk suspended all shipping to a major oil industry port near Bonny in southern Nigeria, where militants shot at six ships in the Bonny channel on Jan. 9.

Oil companies have been struggling to cope with a wave of violence in Nigeria's oil heartland, fuelled by widespread poverty, corruption and lawlessness. The latest violence began in early 2006 when a new rebel coalition, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, blew up oil facilities and abducted dozens of foreign workers in a series of raids.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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