Workers removed from Algeria gas fields after rocket attack

BP and Statoil have temporarily removing staff from two natural gas facilities in Algeria after al-Qaeda militants attacked one of them last week.

"BP has decided to undertake a phased temporary relocation of all its staff from the In Salah Gas and In Amenas (joint ventures) in Algeria over the next two weeks," British Petroleum said in a statement.

There were no casualties in Friday's rocket attack, which was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

On Monday Algerian soldiers killed six suspected militants in an area close to the border with Tunisia, also seizing Kalashnikov assault rifles, three machine guns and an automatic pistol.

The ministry did not link the operation to Friday’s assault, which targeted the In Salah facility, operated by Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and the Algerian oil company Sonatrach.

BP said on Monday that the temporary relocation was "a precautionary measure".

Statoil will also temporarily remove its employees from the two sites in the coming weeks, as well as its temporary operations centre in Hassi Messaoud, a spokesman told AFP.

The employees currently at the site will not be replaced at the end of their shifts.

BP said it would continue to work with its joint venture partners remotely.

Neither BP nor Statoil specified how many employees were impacted.

Friday's attack was the most serious since other al-Qaeda-linked militants stormed the In Amenas complex in Algeria's remote east in 2013 and began a four-day siege that left dozens of people dead.