U.S. Oil Company Fires Hostage Workers

An oil company that fired six workers trapped in Kuwait and ended salaries to their families said Friday that it is “deeply grieved” by the situation but was forced into the action by the cutoff of funds from the Middle East.

OGE Drilling Inc. notified families of the hostage workers Thursday that they would be paid only for work done by the men Aug. 1 and 2.

The company fired its employees still trapped in Kuwait, along with 12 others who escaped the Middle East, after the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion, and the workers were taken off the payroll under an “act of war” clause in their contracts, company spokesman Bill Schaub said.

“OGE Drilling has a contract with our employees and OGE Drilling has a contract with Kuwait Oil Co.,” OGE spokesman Bill Schaub said. “Both of those contracts are terminated.”

OGE said it was establishing a bank fund to provide money for the families of its trapped workers, and that the firm might have to file for bankruptcy.

OGE supplies rig supervisors and superintendents to the Kuwait Oil Co. and its parent, Kuwait National Petroleum. Both are owned by the Kuwaiti government overthrown by Iraqi invaders.

“We are deeply grieved by the situation,” Schaub said. “There is no one here that is not concerned. . . . But we feel we are in a position where we can’t do any more. . . . We have to accept the criticism which is going to come, and we feel like we’ve explored every possibility and we are still exploring possibilities. But we have no choice in the matter.”

Wives of the stranded workers are finding themselves hard-pressed to pay growing bills and have little sympathy for OGE’s problems.

“Everyone has problems,” said Donnita Cole of Odessa, whose husband, John Henry Cole, is among the hostage OGE employees. “My problem is that my husband is lost in Kuwait. I have a son in Saudi Arabia ready to go to war. And now I have another problem because the company my husband works for is not going to give me a paycheck.”