Foreign oil firms, including major companies like BP and TotalEnergies, have evacuated some of their international staff from southern Iraq due to escalating regional tensions, the state-owned Basra Oil Company announced on Monday.
Despite these evacuations, the company confirmed that oil operations in Basra province, which accounts for the majority of Iraq’s crude oil production, remain unaffected.
An official from the Basra Oil Company indicated that the evacuations are a response to the current “security situation” in the region.
British energy giant BP, a significant foreign player in Iraq’s oil sector, withdrew personnel from the massive Rumaila field.
However, Iraqi staff are managing operations remotely in coordination with BP, ensuring production continues without interruption.
Other companies have also reduced their presence; Italian firm ENI has gradually cut its staff from 260 to 98 employees, while France’s TotalEnergies evacuated 60 per cent of its personnel as a precautionary measure. In contrast, Russian oil giant Lukoil and Chinese companies have not evacuated their staff.
Iraq, a founding member of OPEC, relies heavily on crude oil sales, which constitute 90 per cent of its budget revenues.
Since the start of the Iran-Israel conflict last week, there have been growing fears that the violence could spill over into Iraq, a country with US troops deployed as part of an anti-terrorism coalition and a strong Iranian influence through various armed groups.
Following US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday, an Iranian official warned that any bases in the region used in these attacks “will be considered legitimate targets.”
Furthermore, Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq had previously threatened Washington’s interests if the US were to join Israel in its conflict with Iran. Iraq has long attempted to balance its delicate relationships with its allies, Tehran and Washington, making it a frequent arena for proxy conflicts.
