01 December 2014, News Wires – A terrorist group loyal to the extremist organisation known as Islamic State, or Isis, has claimed responsibility for the murder of an employee of US independent Apache in Egypt in August.
The group known as Sinai Province, formerly Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, reportedly said on its official Twitter site on Sunday that it had killed William Henderson and published photo identification cards, including a US passport and Apache and Quarun Petroleum identity cards. Quarun is the name of an Apache joint venture with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.
Though the terror group did not say how or when they killed the Apache employee, the passport shows Henderson as a 58-year-old from Texas. Those details are consistent with an obituary in an Oklahoma newspaper that said Henderson, a 28-year veteran of Apache, had “passed suddenly” while working in Egypt around the time of the reported murder.
Apache confirmed at the time that one of its E&P supervisors had been killed in anapparent carjacking in Egypt’s Western Desert.
The company did not identify the victim at the time. However, on Monday, Apache said in a statement that the victim’s name was Bill Henderson.
“The tragic carjacking incident this past August involving our colleague Bill Henderson is still under investigation by the US government,” a spokesperson said. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Henderson family.”
Apache had no further comment.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is a Sinai-based jihadist group and has carried out dozens of attacks, primarily targeting Egyptian security forces. It pledged allegiance to Isis last month.
Apache mostly employees locals at its Egyptian operations, but has roughly 140 expatriate staffers working at any given time.
Apache has been operating in Egypt since 1994 and claims to currently be one of the largest acreage holders in the Western Desert.
– Upstream