A stand-off between angry Iraqi villagers and one of the world’s biggest offshore companies has ended peacefully.
Last night the Foreign Office confirmed no British nationals had been hurt after an armed gang stormed a Schlumberger rig in Kurdistan on Friday.
One worker on board the HKN Energy plant, based near the Turkish border, told the Press and Journal on Sunday that they had been forced to shut down the onshore rig and were being held against their will.
Brock Fettes was among 120 workers on the rig when it was stormed.
The 65-year-old said the villagers had arrived “heavily armed” before taking over the checkpoint which leads to the rig.
Mr Fettes, a directional engineer from Wanton Wells Farm, Insch, Aberdeenshire, said two graduates from Aberdeen University, both consultants for the HKN oil company, had also been held at the rig which is manned mainly by Schlumberger personnel.
One of them is understood to be from Orkney.
Last night Mr Fettes said the British Embassy acted quickly after it was made aware of the situation and that they were no longer in danger.
He said: “At around 8pm local time last night the British Embassy contacted me saying they had been in touch with the local authorities and that they expected a quick resolve to the situation.
“An hour-and-a-half later one of the local villagers came and said that we could resume normal operations which we did and everything has been business as usual ever since.”
The father-of-four and grandfather-of-two said he expected to return home within the next few days.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “The situation has now been resolved and no British nationals were at risk or have been harmed.”
Kurdistan – which is governed by the Kurdistan National Government – borders Iran to the east, Syria to the west, Turkey to the north, and the rest of Iraq to the south.
It was established after an autonomy agreement was made in March 1970 between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of conflict. Now, Iraqi Kurdistan counts itself as part of a united Iraq – but one that administers its own affairs. Under the new Iraqi constitution, devised in 2005, the region is defined as a federal entity of Iraq.
The situation has now been resolved