Exxon Mobil pulls foreign staff from Iraq

Exxon Mobil has evacuated all of its foreign staff from Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield and is flying them out to Dubai, three sources said yesterday. Production at the oilfield was not affected by the evacuation and work is continuing normally, overseen by Iraqi engineers, Iraqi oil officials said.

“Production is managed by Iraqi engineers anyway, the foreigners are advisers. We have a closed circuit television link with them (foreign staff ) and can communicate with them whenever we need,” said an official at Iraq’s South Oil Company. Staff were evacuated in several phases late on Friday and early on Saturday, either straight to Dubai or to the main camp housing foreign oil company employees in Basra province.

Those in the camp were en route to the airport on Saturday morning, the three sources - an employee at a security company contracted by Exxon, an Iraqi oil official, and a staff member of a foreign oil company - said.