-- Nigerian prosecutors charged 14 Filipinos with illegally dealing in oil 10 days after their ship was seized while allegedly carrying 160 metric tons of crude stolen off the west African nation's coast.

The accused were charged yesterday in the southern Nigerian town of Warri, according to a transcript of the proceedings received via e-mail from the court today.

The charges include three felony counts of tampering with oil pipelines, impeding the free-flow of petroleum through pipelines and dealing in oil without license or authority.All of the accused, who have pleaded not guilty, face as much as 20 years in jail if convicted.

Nigeria loses at least 100,000 barrels of oil per day to theft, according to the Web site of Waltham, Massachusetts- based Global Insight Inc. A report commissioned for former President Olusegun Obasanjo estimated the amount of crude stolen by criminal groups at up to 300,000 barrels a day, according to an article published in 2006 on the Web site of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, an Alexandria, Virginia-based think-tank.

Prosecutors allege the vessel manned by the Filipinos was carrying 160 tons of crude suspected of having been siphoned from a pipeline belonging to Agip, a subsidiary of Italian oil company Eni SpA.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua said earlier this month that the international trade in stolen crude is fueling violence in the oil-producing Niger Delta that has cut more than 20 percent of the country's oil exports since 2006.