Saudi Aramco Denies Any Exodus of Foreign Workers

Saudi Arabia’s main oil production company denied Friday that nearly 600 of its foreign workers resigned because of fears of war in the Persian Gulf.

The official Saudi press agency quoted an official source at Saudi Aramco as saying the report, carried by Reuters from Dhahran Thursday, was “completely baseless.”

A Saudi executive at Aramco told Reuters on Thursday that about 600 foreign workers, fearing the imminent outbreak of war in the Gulf, had resigned and many more were expected to go.

The executive, who asked not to be named, said he believed that the number may double or triple in the next three months.

The Saudi press agency quoted an unnamed official as saying there was no rush by foreigners to leave the company:

“The average departure (of foreign workers) at the end of their contracts . . . is normal.

“The number of workers who are arriving in the kingdom to participate in the new expansion process are more than those who are departing,” the agency said.

Chevron Corp. denied Thursday that any of its employees working for Saudi Aramco were leaving after tens of thousands of U.S. and mainly Arab troops arrived in eastern Saudi Arabia.

“They (the workers) are staying . . . We have 61 workers there on a contract basis. About 40 of them are there now and the rest are on vacation and will return,” Chevron spokesman Mike Libbey said.

Industry executives said Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, issued orders last week to pump more oil to help fill a gap caused by shortages from Iraq and Kuwait.

Saudi Aramco, which employs about 32,000 Saudis, has 3,000 American workers, compared to about 6,000 in 1981.

Many foreigners working for the company sent their families home during the early days of the Gulf crisis caused by Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.