Iraq’s Basra forms crisis cell to protect oil facilities after attacks on foreign companies

Shafaq News- Basra

Basra Governor Asaad Al-Eidani said on Sunday that a crisis cell has been formed to oversee the protection of oil institutions and vital facilities in the southern Iraqi province following recent attacks targeting oil fields and foreign energy companies.

After a security meeting that brought together senior security commanders, representatives of oil companies, and members of Basra’s provincial council committees, the governor pointed out that some employees working for companies involved in Iraq’s oil licensing rounds had left the country as a precaution, but the Basra Oil Company and the South Refineries Company confirmed they can continue operating fields and facilities even if some supporting foreign staff depart.

Al-Eidani noted that a plan to protect oil fields has been prepared in coordination with caretaker Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and is being implemented under his direct supervision.

The governor also said fuel and gas reserves —including cooking gas and gas supplied to electricity generation plants— are currently secured.

The move comes after several incidents in the province in recent days, including drone attacks targeting a complex housing employees of foreign oil companies. Other drones that targeted facilities belonging to the US oil services company Halliburton in the Burgessia area were intercepted and shot down before reaching the site.

The French energy company TotalEnergies also evacuated its foreign staff from projects in Basra on the same day, and 151 employees of the British company BP had left the province over the past two days due to unstable security conditions, including reports of drones flying over operational areas. Around 650 people work for the company in Basra.