Stay or Be Fired, Oil Workers Told : Expatriates: Aramco tells some employees in Saudi Arabia that they cannot take unscheduled vacations.

Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that pumps 97% of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum, notified some employees Wednesday that they will not be permitted to take unscheduled vacation during the Persian Gulf War and could be fired if they leave the country.

Coming a day after an Iraqi-launched Scud missile plowed into a neighborhood adjacent to Tel Aviv, injuring nearly 100 people and causing three fatal heart attacks, the announcement left a large number of American and British workers bitter and distraught.

“I feel like I’m being held here against my will. I’m not being given an option here at all: either stay here and risk my life, or be terminated. I find myself with little choice,” said John Saadi, an electrical engineer at Aramco for more than 12 years.

“It’s sort of a token human bondage situation ...,” added Jack Devine, who works in the company’s research and development division. “People can’t leave.”

The increased concern about safety follows nearly a week of Scud missile attacks near Aramco headquarters in Dhahran. Although nearly all of the missiles have been safely intercepted by U.S. Army Patriot missiles, large chunks of shrapnel have fallen in the Aramco compound and the nearby community of Al Khubar, and residents here have spent several hours each night huddled in shelters and safe rooms to the sound of air raid sirens.

The unrest among expatriate worker unrest comes when Aramco has never had a more urgent need for the services of American and British professionals and technicians. The company has mustered all its resources to more than double oil production to 8.5 million barrels a day to make up oil normally flowing from Iraq and Kuwait. A $20-billion project is under way to boost expansion even further.

Further, the tap on Aramco’s oil and gas supplies must be kept open to supply the huge war needs of the coalition forces, an Aramco official said.

“This is what (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein would like to do, to scare people out so he would cut off the oil production here. If we let critical people go, this is what happens,” the official said. “We are just like soldiers here, frankly. We have a job to do, just like a military effort. Suppose everyone left--how would we go on? This is the dilemma.”

But Abdullah Jumah, Aramco’s senior vice president, said Tuesday that there has ben no company-wide policy stopping vacations and leave for employees. “People are free to go on vacation, yes, but maybe some departments feel that there are people who should not be leaving at this time,” he said.

Said another company official, who asked not to be named: “We’re not holding anybody captive here. If in our hour of need you have to go, then go.”

Some Americans here say they suspect that the need to keep oil production steady, has affected the U.S. government’s decision not to order any evacuations in Dhahran. A travel advisory issued shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August, and recently reiterated, suggests voluntary departure of dependents from Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province but does not recommend that employees leave their jobs.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the State Department didn’t have the oil concerns in mind. If the Western expertise leaves, there goes oil production, which is the whole name of the game to begin with,” said Aramco Business Manager David Sherwood.

Thousands of dependents fled Saudi Arabia shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, but many of those who remained held out stubborn hopes that the crisis would be resolved peacefully. Then, after war broke out last week and Iraqi missiles began to be aimed at Dhahran, many were lulled into a sense of security by the successful use of Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scuds.

Hundreds of Saudis and expatriates flocked to a spot in Al Khubar where parts of a Scud missile, rendered harmless by a Patriot, had churned up the pavement. In a Dhahran hotel, a huge remnant of a Patriot missile was propped up in the lobby and all day people posed for photographs beside it.

But Tuesday night’s missile strike in Tel Aviv has left Dhahran badly shaken.

“Up until now, it’s been annoying and it’s been frightening, but it hasn’t felt dangerous. But yesterday I imagined Tel Aviv felt safe, too, and then last night, they weren’t,” said an Aramco secretary who asked not to be named.

She was one of a number of Aramco employees in several departments who were told Wednesday that they would not be granted vacation leave, paid or unpaid, unless it had already been approved before now.

“Management told us today there will be no evacuation, period,” said Glenn Lovitz, a computer applications geologist, who said Dhahran residents are becoming increasingly concerned about the falling debris from both the Scuds and the Patriots. One piece that fell on the Aramco compound weighed about 100 pounds, he said. Another two pieces were each two to three feet long.

“I don’t think a lot of people realize that as the Patriots shoot these things down, they’re falling on a community,” Lovitz said.

Aramco employees have complained that the company took too long to install air raid sirens and even now, many say, they are not working in some parts of Aramco’s residential compound.