THE MIDEAST CRISIS: ORANGE COUNTY IMPACT : Firms With Ties to Mideast Play Waiting Game

Several Orange County companies with a presence in Saudi Arabia reported Tuesday that they were staying in close touch with the State Department and had not yet decided to evacuate their employees in the wake of American troops being ordered into the Middle Eastern kingdom.

Fluor Corp., a construction and engineering firm based in Irvine, has no immediate plans to curtail operations or evacuate its 100 employees from Saudi Arabia, said spokesman Rick Maslin. But Tuesday it began transporting about two dozen dependents of workers out of the country.

“We’re in close contact with the State Department and our employees and we have contingency plans to remove personnel if that becomes necessary,” Maslin said.

He said that many dependents had already opted to leave to avoid the desert country’s searing summer. Thus only about a fourth of the dependents were still in the country at the time of President Bush’s decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia, he said.

Fluor employees were working on a number of oil and gas-related projects, but none were near the Saudi border with Iraq. Fluor has maintained a business relationship with Saudi Arabia since the 1970s and at one time was involved with more than $10 billion in contracts there, including the construction of the state university and other non-oil work.

Although Fluor won an estimated $6-billion contract in June to build more oil and gas production facilities in Saudi Arabia, Maslin said the project has barely begun, and there was no indication that the Iraqi invasion would affect that operation. Under the contract, Fluor will refurbish Saudi Aramco’s mothballed northern onshore and offshore oil and gas plants and act as overall program manager for the expansion of oil and gas facilities.

Dan Montano, chairman of VTN Corp., an Irvine engineering and construction management firm, said the company has employees in Saudi Arabia, but he declined to disclose how many or what type of business the company was involved in.

“I’m sure our people will not be evacuated in anything short of an operational war,” Montano said. “Our projects are that sensitive.”

Montano said the company had been doing business in Saudi Arabia for more than 15 years and most recently finished construction of 21 Saudi universities in a $750-million project known as Votrakon. He said the company also built the Saudi Naval Academy in Jiddah.

Montano said the company had representatives in Kuwait two months ago to bid on airport and road construction projects. He said business operations and opportunities in Kuwait have been upset, but that activity accounts for only 5% of the company’s Middle East operations. Saudi Arabia accounts for 25% of the company’s Middle Eastern business.

Varco International, an Irvine company that makes oil and gas drilling equipment, does business with both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but it does not expect the Iraqi invasion to affect company operations, said Maurice Jacobs, vice president of marketing.

He said the company has no employees in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. Company officials make periodic trips to the countries, but there are no trips in progress. Jacobs said he does not at this point expect any impact on company operations.

Another large Southern California firm, Parsons Corp., also said it has made no move to evacuate its 200 employees in Saudi Arabia. The Pasadena-based engineering and construction company is building an industrial city in Yanbu on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. It is also doing construction related to oil and gas exploration in Al Khobar.

Parsons also has about 100 employees in Kuwait, including 20 U.S. citizens, said spokeswoman Deborah Williams. She said the company has been unable to contact any employees in Kuwait since Thursday morning.