BP Faces Pressure over Algeria Gas Plant Attack

His fears were laid out in the email to his sister on Nov. 30 after many expatriates had already been evacuated or "demobbed" in the industry jargon.

"Situation is getting dodgy here, local drivers have been on strike for 6 months, they are now on hunger strike, place is practically crippled and can't go on much longer," he wrote in an email tinged with black humour that British lawmaker Rosie Cooper read out in parliament on June 12.

"Local Tuareg have said that if any of the hunger strikers die then they will kill 30 expats at the In Amenas gas plant. As most expats have been demobbed, there are only 10 of us left, they must be planning to kill us all three times over, ha ha."

The Tuareg community are traditionally nomadic people who inhabit the Sahara desert mainly in Algeria, Mali and Niger.

According to Statoil's report, written by staff and external security experts including a former acting director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the long-running dispute over contracts worsened in November when the hunger strike began.

The drivers went back to work in return for a pay rise and contract extension the next month, but the report said joint venture managers had felt the deal was unlikely to last.

Barlow said her husband was evacuated in early December 2012 and had not expected to go back as the situation was so tense. Garry had begun to look for other work when his managers told him the strike was over and it was safe to return, she said.


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