Employees of energy giant ExxonMobil have begun evacuating from an oil field in the southern Iraqi province of Basra but work at the field is still ongoing, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
The evacuation comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran. The U.S. has already ordered all nonessential diplomatic staff out of Iraq.
An Iraqi oil official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said all those who are being evacuated are foreigners or Iraqis who hold additional national citizenships. The official did not give numbers but said the first group left two days ago and another batch left early Saturday.
She added that ExxonMobil has programs and measures in place to provide security to protect its people, operations and facilities."We are committed to ensuring the safety of our employees and contractors at all of our facilities around the world," King wrote in an email. State-run Iraqi News Agency said work at Qurna 1 oil field"is going on normally" and has not been affected by the evacuation of ExxonMobil's employees.
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