BP prepares to evacuate some staff from Libya

LONDON: British energy giant BP was on Monday making preparations to evacuate some of its staff from Libya amid escalating unrest in the country, a spokesman told AFP.

"We're just monitoring the situation and making preparations to evacuate some of the families, and some non-essential staff in the next day or two," said the spokesman.

The company has about 140 staff in Libya, mostly in Tripoli, about 40 of whom are expatriates, he said.

Some of those being prepared for evacuation were crew making drilling preparations at a site near the historic desert city of Ghadames and as a result this work was being suspended.

The site was still many years from producing oil, added the spokesman.

BP chief executive Bob Dudley said that the company was keeping a close watch on the situation but remained committed to doing business in the crisis-hit North African state.

"We, like everyone, are watching this very, very carefully," he said during a press conference in London, broadcast on Sky News television.

"We have operations there that are very, very limited. It's the early stages of exploration.

"We remain committed to doing business there."

Brent oil prices meanwhile soared above $105 per barrel on Monday, striking a fresh two-year peak as the deadly violence in Libya fuelled concerns over spreading unrest in Arab producer states, analysts said.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that at least 233 people have been killed since Thursday in the crackdown in Libya inspired by uprisings in the country's neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.

A 2007 accord with Tripoli allows BP to drill in the Mediterranean's Gulf of Sirte at depths of around 1,700 metres (5,500 feet) and at the onshore site near Ghadames.

The deal has faced criticism in the United States, with suspicions that BP lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, to push through the agreement.

Libyan Megrahi is the only person ever convicted of blowing up a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people, mostly Americans.

BP's drilling operations are also under scrutiny following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year, which prompted the United States' worst environmental disaster.