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Norway's Statoil Returns Some Staff To Algeria After Attack: CEO
By Gwladys Fouche
29/11/2013
OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's Statoil has returned some staff to Algeria following an attack on the In Amenas facility by Islamic militants in January, the firm's chief executive told Reuters on Friday.
The oil firm evacuated staff from all three of its installations in the country after some 40 workers, including five of its employees, were killed at the In Amenas gas plant, co-owned by BP and Algeria's Sonatrach.
The attackers raided the site deep in the Sahara desert, taking foreign workers hostage in a four-day siege that ended when Algerian forces stormed the facility.
Some employees had returned to one installation, Statoil's operational centre at Hassi Messaoud, situated some 700 km (435 miles) to the south-east of Algiers near Ouargla City. It is also the site of Algeria's biggest oilfield.
"We have returned people on a permanent basis to Hassi Messaoud," Statoil CEO Helge Lund said in an interview on the sidelines of a gas seminar.
"It was a few weeks' back," he said.
Lund said it was unclear when a return of staff to the two other installations where the company has operations, In Amenas and In Salah, could take place.
"We have not repatriated staff to In Salah. It will probably happen sooner than in In Amenas. At In Amenas it will probably take some more time," said Lund.
"We are very focused on making sure that we have all the initiatives and action to make sure that the (In Amenas) plant is safe and secure and that we learn from the incident."
In September an international company probe said Statoil missed multiple warning signs and failed to foresee or prepare for incidents such as January's attack, painting a picture of chronic security problems at the site.
A Statoil union representative said it was unlikely that staff would return to In Amenas before next year.
"It is possible for staff to return but there must be extra security measures put in place first. This will take time," Bjoern Asle Teige, a Statoil trade union representative, told Reuters. "It won't happen this year. Maybe next year."
Unions are influential in Norway and play an important role in issues of safety and security.
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