Statoil confirms three dead at In Amenas
Statoil has confirmed the deaths of three employees who were killed in last week’s attack by Islamist terrorists at the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria.
The Norwegian victims were named as Tore Bech, aged 58, from Bergen and Thomas Snekkevik, aged 35, from the Austrheim municipality.
Statoil named a third victim, 55-year-old Hans Bjone of Brandbu, as among the deceased later on Friday.
Bech, who was married, had been working for Statoil in Algeria since 2006 and was operations manager at In Amenas, having earlier served as platform manager on the Veslefrikk and Gullfaks fields off Norway.
He was also the stepfather of Norway’s Minister for International Development Heikki Holmas.
Snekkevik had been employed as a turnaround team leader, having worked in Algeria for the last three years.
"Our thoughts are first and foremost with the families and close friends who have lost their loved ones in this horrific and senseless attack on innocent people,” said Statoil chief executive Helge Lund.
“We are a company in mourning," Lund added.
Two employees of the state-owned oil company remain unaccounted for following the attack, which has now resulted in the deaths of at least 40 foreign workers who were taken hostage. Twenty-nine terrorists were killed by Algerian security forces. Three of the attackers are now in custody.
However, hope is fading for the remaining workers, with Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg admitting on Friday there was “little likelihood of finding more survivors”.
His fears were echoed by a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman who told news agency NTB the ministry has learnt from the Algerian authorities that the ongoing search of the facility by security forces is focused on finding undetonated explosives rather than further survivors.
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