London (Platts)--31Jan2011/527 am EST/1027 GMT

International oil companies including BP, Shell and Russia's Lukoil have evacuated non-essential staff from Egypt due to the violent anti-government protests that broke out in Cairo and other major cities last week.

The revolt to overthrow embattled President Hosni Mubarak raged into the seventh day on Monday, AFP reported.

As offices and some business closed in the wake of the unrest, local personnel are being advised to remain at home.

Egypt's oil and gas production based in the Western Desert, Nile Delta, and Gulf of Suez, has not yet been affected by the protests, according to western oil companies.

Security staff at BP's offices in Cairo said the UK major had begun to evacuate foreign personnel, adding that that most of the company's staffing in Egypt are local.

There has been no known impact to BP operations which produced net equity output of 150,000 boe last year, a company spokesman in London said.

Italy's Eni, Egypt's biggest foreign oil and gas producer with an averaged of 230,000 b/d of oil equivalent in 2009, is continuing to operate its upstream sites normally, a spokesman said. He said the company expects to comment shortly on its current staffing arrangements in the country.

Meanwhile, Shell has evacuated "non-essential" staff and their dependents from Egypt, company spokesman Kim Blomley said Monday in an e-mailed statement.

"Given the development of events over the weekend, it was decided to temporarily relocate expatriate staff, dependents and some non-essential expatriate staff," Blomley said. "A number of senior and key personnel, including the Shell Egypt country chair, remain in the country."

Local staff have been advised to stay home and the Shell offices are closed, Blomley said, adding that he had no immediate information on how Shell's retail operations and oil and gas production had been affected.

Lukoil, Russia's largest privately held oil company, and independent gas producer Novatek also started to evacuate their staff from Egypt, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported Sunday.

"Lukoil's staff will be evacuated on Sunday and Novatek's employees on Monday," the agency quoted a source in Cairo as saying.

OIL, GAS OPERATIONS IN EGYPT The UK's BG Group has withdrawn non-essential staff while leaving senior management and operational workers in place in order to maintain production, a spokesman said.

The company produces some 159,000 boe/d from two gas producing areas offshore the Nile Delta; the Rosetta and the West Delta Deep Marine concessions.

There is little official information on the effect on state-operated oil and gas production operations in Egypt.

In 2009, an estimated 1 million b/d of crude and refined products moved north through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, while 800,000 b/d moved southbound into the Red Sea, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Most of Shell's upstream operations in Egypt are in the Western Desert and Nile delta, according to the company's website. No production figures were given, although the website says that Shell's daily production in Egypt consists of oil, gas and condensates.

The company also operates more than 80 retail service stations across the country.

Lukoil is involved in several upstream oil projects in Egypt, the biggest of which is the West Esh El Mallaha oil field on the Red Sea coast, where it holds a 50% stake. It is also involved in a joint project with Italy's Eni-Agip in the Meleiha field development in the Libyan Desert. It operates the West Geisum and the Northeast Geisum offshore blocks in the Suez Gulf as well.

Russia's Novatek has set up a joint venture with Egypt's Sarva to produce gas from fields in the northern city of El Arish, RIA Novosti said.

--Thomas Hogue, thomas_hogue@platts.com

--Robert Perkins, robert_perkins@platts.com

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