UPDATE 1-US charges two Britons with bribes in KBR venture

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WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - Two British citizens face charges of bribing Nigerian officials as part of a joint venture that included KBR Inc (KBR.N) to build liquefied natural gas facilities, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

Jeffrey Tesler was arrested in London on Thursday, the same day as the indictment handed down in February was made public, the department said. It said former KBR employee Wojciech Chodan, of England, was being sought on a U.S. arrest warrant. The department said it was seeking extradition of the suspects, and forfeiture of $130 million from the two.

KBR, a former engineering subsidiary of Halliburton Co (HAL.N), pleaded guilty last month to federal charges that it paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials in a decade-long scheme to secure $6 billion in contracts.

KBR agreed to pay a $402 million fine, of which Halliburton agreed to pay $302 million. Halliburton also agreed with U.S. securities regulators to disgorge $177 million in profits to settle parallel criminal charges.

The indictment said Chodan and other co-conspirators discussed using Tesler, who had been hired as an agent of the four-company venture, to bribe Nigerian officials.

It said KBR's former chief executive Albert Stanley and others asked senior Nigerian government officials to designate a representative for negotiating the bribes. Stanley and others then negotiated bribe amounts, agreed to hire Tesler and another agent to pay the bribes. Stanley pleaded guilty last year to his part in the bribery plan.

If convicted on all charges, Tesler and Chodan each face a maximum prison sentence of 55 years. (Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen; editing by Mohammad Zargham)