The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas shot dead two security personnel and an electrician as they got out of their vehicle at the Selmo oil field at Kozluk in Batman province on Wednesday night, the officials said.
The Canadian firm Transatlantic Petroleum Ltd. operates the Selmo field and describes it as the second largest in Turkey. Transatlantic said in a statement it was working with local authorities to investigate the incident.
An air-backed operation was launched at dawn in pursuit of the PKK fighters, security officials said.
Batman Governor Ahmet Turhan said operations at the oil field were continuing.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK’s separatist insurgency since it took up arms against the state in 1984. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey.
