China National Petroleum Company is evacuating 32 oil workers from several oil bases, a company official told state media on Friday. Some were working at the oil field in Unity State.
“We are arranging the orderly evacuation of our workers,” said a company official to state news agency Xinhua. He added that the the affected oilfield was not operated by CNPC, meaning that a far large number of employees of the field operators also potentially face evacuation.
A United Nations official earlier reported that about 200 oil workers who sought refuge at a UN base in Unity State would be evacuated by their employers. There is no confirmation yet that this group have left.
Earlier in the week, 12 Chinese workers were trapped in a crossfire on a base just outside Juba town after a mutiny within the presidential guards. They have been successfully rescued, the Chinese Foreign ministry said.
Xinhua reports that the Bentiu oilfield that is operated by a consortium of Indian, Malaysian and South Sudanese companies, was caught up in unrest on Thursday that killed 14 South Sudanese oil workers.
The exact number of casualties in the events in Unity State is unknown. In a statement on Friday the UN Security Council referred to “heavy loss of life.”
“The members of the Security Council… strongly condemned the attacks on oil installations, which resulted in heavy loss of life of oil workers, and called upon all parties to ensure the security of economic infrastructures and the safety of the employees,” the Council president said.
CNPC is participating in oil exploration with the Malaysian state oil firm Petronas as a partners in Petrodar and in the the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC).
(Sources: Xinhua,Reuters, UN)
Photo: Expatriates and Southern Sudanese with western passports evacuated Today in crowded cargo planes departing from South Sudan (Davey Stanley)