PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - French oil services firm Bourbon <GPBN.PA> confirmed on Monday one of its vessels was hijacked and nine crew members were taken hostage off the Nigerian oil terminal at Bonny Island in the early hours of Sunday.

Security sources in Nigeria had reported the attack on Sunday. Bonny Island, where a major crude export terminal and a liquefied natural gas plant are located, is in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta where piracy and kidnapping are common.

The company said the Bourbon Leda, a Fast Supply Intervention Vessel, was seized by gunmen who also captured all nine crew members -- five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian.

"Bourbon received on Sunday Jan. 4 a call that allowed it to be in contact with the captain of the Bourbon Leda, who confirmed that all crew members are safe and in good health," the firm said in a statement posted on its website.

It said it had informed the families of the crew and set up a crisis team to secure their release as soon as possible.

Security sources in Nigeria had said the vessel was on its way to a Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> offshore oilfield at the time of the attack.

The Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks opening into the Gulf of Guinea, is home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry but supplies have been crippled by a wave of attacks that began in early 2006.

Militants who say they are fighting for a fairer distribution of the delta's oil wealth have blown up pipelines and kidnapped oil workers, shutting down about a fifth of Nigeria's output.

Criminal networks have taken advantage of the insecurity to carry out kidnappings and hijackings for ransom. Hundreds of foreigners have been seized over the past three years, but most have been released unharmed after a financial settlement.

Ten crew members of another Bourbon vessel that was hijacked on Oct. 31 last year off Cameroon, just south of the Niger Delta, were released unharmed on Nov. 11. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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