International oil workers are returning to work at Algeria’s In Amenas gas plant nearly a year and a half after the Islamist militant attack there that killed 40 people, a source at Algerian state energy company Sonatrach said on Saturday.
“Twelve expatriate workers are already at the gas facility and more are expected progressively,” the source said without giving details on their nationalities.
Norway’s Statoil and BP, which operate the facility with Sonatrach, had demanded improved security before returning workers. Forty oil contractors, all but one foreign, died in January 2013 after militants took expatriates hostage during a four-day siege that ended when Algerian forces stormed the site.