据5月19日路透社巴格达报道，伊拉克石油部长塔玛·加德班周日表示，埃克森美孚周六从伊拉克南部的西古尔纳1油田撤出其外籍员工的决定是“不可接受和不合理的”。
加德班在一份声明中表示:“尽管人数不多，但多名雇员的撤离暂时与伊拉克南部油田的安全局势或威胁无关，这是出于政治原因”。
伊拉克官员称，埃克森美孚公司已经撤回了大约60名外籍员工，该公司代表伊拉克国家南方石油公司签订了改善油田的长期合同。
在撤离前几天，美国从其驻巴格达大使馆撤出了非必要的工作人员。加德班说，在本周晚些时候与埃克森美孚公司高管会面之前，他给埃克森美孚公司发了一封信，要求该公司立即返回南部油田工作。
拥有该油田的伊拉克国有南方石油公司(South Oil Company)负责人伊桑阿卜杜勒贾巴尔(Ihsan Abdul Jabbar)周六表示，该油田的生产没有受到撤离的影响，在伊拉克工程师的监督下，工作仍在正常进行。他补充说，该油田产量仍保持在每天44万桶。
孙子舒 编译自 路透社
原文如下，
Exxon evacuates foreign staff from Iraqi oilfield
Exxon Mobil's decision to evacuate its foreign staff from the West Qurna 1 oilfield in southern Iraq "The withdrawal of multiple employees - despite their small number - temporarily has nothing to do with the security situation or threats in the oilfields in of southern Iraq, but it's for political reasons," Ghadhban said in a statement.
Exxon Mobil, which has a long term contract to improve the oilfield The evacuation came just days after the United States withdrew non-essential staff from its embassy in Baghdad.Ghadhban said he sent a letter to Exxon Mobil asking for the company to immediately return to work at the southern oilfield, ahead of a meeting with company executives later this week.
Production at the oilfield was not affected by the evacuation and work was continuing normally, overseen by Iraqi engineers, the chief of Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company which owns the oil field, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said