Exxon Mobil has evacuated all its foreign staff members out of Iraq's West Qurna 1 oilfield and is flying them out to Dubai, Reuters has reported citing three sources.
According to the report, the evacuation of staff members began on Friday and lasted through Saturday. Some of them were taken to Dubai, while others arrived at the main camp in Basra Province where the company's employees reside.
The evacuation has not affected production at the oilfield, Iraqi oil officials have said. They added that work at the site is under way as normal and being undertaken by Iraqi engineers.
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Earlier, the US State Department ordered all non-emergency US government employees to leave Iraq amid rising tensions with Tehran.
Shortly afterwards, Germany and the Netherlands announced that they were halting military training operations in Iraq "until further orders". However, on Friday the German Defence Ministry announced that it was resuming its training mission after carrying out a re-evaluation of the security situation in the region.
Relations between the US and Iran have grown more tense lately after the US reinforced its military presence in the Persian Gulf with the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a bomber task force. Tehran has repeatedly said it is ready to retaliate if a military conflict erupts.
