西方石油巨擘開始將員工撤離伊拉克

Oil majors including Exxon-Mobil and BP have started evacuating staff from Iraq as Sunni militants battle for control of the north’s main refinery and clashes continue to rage across the country.

埃克森美孚(Exxon Mobil)、英國石油(BP)等石油巨擘開始將員工撤離伊拉克。遜尼派(Sunni)武裝分子正在攻打伊拉克北部主要煉油廠，試圖控制該廠。衝突繼續在該國肆虐。

Exxon has pulled expatriate staff out of its West Qurna 1 field in the south, according to people close to the company. BP said it had taken non-essential employees out of the giant Rumaila field it runs nearby.

據知情人士稱，埃克森美孚已將其員工從伊拉克南部的West Qurna 1號油田撤離。英國石油表示，已將非必要人員從附近其運營的魯邁拉(Rumaila)大油田撤離。

Hans Nijkamp, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell in Iraq, said the company had a plan in place to remove staff from the country if the situation deteriorated, although it has not evacuated any employees so far. Other oil majors have similar contingency plans in place.

荷蘭皇家殼牌(Royal Dutch Shell)駐伊拉克董事長漢斯•尼卡普(Hans Nijkamp)表示，該公司已制定計劃，一旦形勢惡化，將撤離駐伊拉克員工。不過，目前該公司尚未撤離員工。其他石油巨擘也制定了類似的應急計劃。

Iraq’s main oil facilities are in the south, far from the areas captured by rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis. So far exports and production have not been hit by the fighting.

伊拉克的主要石油設施位於南部，遠離“伊拉克與黎凡特伊斯蘭國”(Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant，簡稱Isis)叛軍所佔領的地區。目前，出口和生產尚未受到衝突的影響。

However, the evacuations show how Isis’s rapid military advance and the collapse of the Iraqi army in places like Mosul have started to change the calculus for western oil companies active in the south.

然而，石油巨擘疏散員工的舉動表明，Isis的快速軍事推進以及伊拉克軍隊在摩蘇爾等地的潰敗，已開始改變在伊拉克南部開展業務的西方石油公司的計劃。

Some experts warn if the violence continues to escalate, the companies that have spearheaded the revival of Iraq’s oil industry could be forced to reconsider their presence there.

一些專家警告稱，如果暴力繼續升級，那些引領伊拉克石油行業復興的企業可能被迫重新考慮在該國的業務。

Ed Morse, chief oil analyst at Citigroup, said the insurgents’ military gains would have big repercussions for Iraq’s future oil supply. He said: “The longer the insurgency lasts and the more divisive it becomes, the more difficult it will be for Iraq to even approach its potential to sustain production at 6m barrels a day or more.”

花旗集團(Citigroup)首席石油分析師艾德•摩爾斯(Ed Morse)表示，叛軍的軍事進展將對伊拉克未來的石油供應產生重大影響。他表示：“叛亂持續越久，分裂越嚴重，伊拉克就越難以發揮潛力，維持每天600萬桶或更高的產量。”

That would have “radical implications for oil markets” at a time of widespread supply disruptions in places like Libya, he added. So far the oil price has stayed relatively stable, edging up towards $114 a barrel in afternoon trading.

他補充道，在利比亞等地石油供應普遍受到干擾的情況下，伊拉克形勢將“對石油市場產生根本性的影響”。迄今爲止，油價維持在相對穩定的水平，在下午時段微漲逼近每桶114美元。

As Isis launched an attack on the Baiji refinery on Tuesday night, Nouri Maliki, prime minister, sacked four military commanders. News agencies quoted officials at the refinery saying Isis fighters were shelling the facility with mortars and had taken over several of the important sites at the plant, 250km north of the capital Baghdad.

在Isis週二晚向Baiji煉油廠發起進攻之際，伊拉克總理努裏•馬利基(Nouri al-Maliki)解除了四位軍事指揮官的職務。新聞機構援引該煉油廠主管人員的說法稱，Isis武裝人員正使用迫擊炮攻擊煉油廠，並且已經攻下了工廠的數個重要據點。該煉油廠位於首都巴格達以北250公里。