Sustainability

Tunisia Gasfield Protesters Reach Deal, Production To Restart: Government

Protesters blockading oil and gas fields in southern Tunisia have reached an agreement with the government to end a sit-in and allow production to restart immediately, the government and protesters said on 16 June.

Protesters blockading oil and gas fields in southern Tunisia have reached an agreement with the government to end a sit-in and allow production to restart immediately, the government and protesters said on 16 June.

Protests over jobs in southern Tataouine and Kebili provinces hit oil and gas production in a region where French company Perenco and Austrian producer OMV operate. The deal calls for jobs in oil companies and development projects.

Labor Minister Imed Hammami told a press conference the agreement would allow production to restart immediately.

“It is an agreement that addresses all our demands for the region, and we will end the sit-in,” Tarek Haddad, one of the protest leaders at the Kamour site, told Reuters.

The deal calls for 1,500 jobs in oil companies, a budget of 80 million dinars (USD 32.66 million) for a development fund and another 3,000 jobs in environmental projects.

Protesters were pressing demands for jobs and a share of the country’s energy wealth and forced the closure of two oil and gas pumping stations in Kamour in Tatatouine and in Kebili.

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