Two foreign oil companies pledged to reduce or pull out staff completely at two Algerian natural gas plants following a March 18 attack by militants on the Ain Amenas natural gas plant in eastern Algeria, Reuters reported March 21. BP says it will temporarily pull out all of its staff from the Ain Salah and Ain Amenas natural gas projects over the next two weeks, while Norway’s Statoil says it will reduce staff at the Ain Salah plant. Algiers badly needs the investment and technology of firms such as BP and Norway’s Statoil in order to develop Ain Salah and Ain Amenas, which each account for about 20 percent of Algeria’s natural gas production