IRAQ: Thousands of poor Iraqis queue for oil jobs

Record ID: 343572

  • Title: IRAQ: Thousands of poor Iraqis queue for oil jobs
  • Date: 19th October 2009
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAO9W3UDRPGL6GY4R3LT0RK8ST
  • Story Text: With a clutch of deals between Iraq and global oil majors in the pipeline, legions of poverty-stricken and unemployed Iraqis hope to finally benefit from their country's vast oil wealth.
    Thousands have been queuing this month to apply for 1,670 new jobs at Iraq's South Oil Company (SOC), which oversees most of Iraqi oil exports and is gearing up to work with some of the world's biggest oil firms.
    Overnight queues, angry crowds and scuffles with police are a taster of what Britain's BP <BP.L>, China's CNPC, Italy's ENI <ENI.MI> and others may face when they start work in Iraq, which has seen little foreign investment since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
    As part of contracts to rehabilitate Iraq's crumbling oil sector, foreign oil majors must employ Iraqis wherever possible, and set aside five million U.S. dollars for training.
    At one job application centre in Basra, a decrepit city of sewage puddles and slums but also the oil exporting hub for the world's third-largest crude reserves, men huddle in a vast queue at night, waiting to apply.
    "You can see the sufferings of Iraqis, the suffering of the Iraqi people, thousands of unemployed people who can't provide for their families. What did those people do to deserve this? They have been waiting here for three or four days, and only God knows how long this long queue will stay here," said Hussam Abdulkarim, an unemployed Iraqi queuing to apply for a job with the SOC.
    The next day, some jobseekers fainted as others surged against a security cordon with police beating back the crowd.
    In the last two weeks, Iraq has approved a deal with BP and CNPC to develop the super-giant Rumaila oilfield, and a deal with a group led by Italy's ENI for the Zubair field is seen as close. Consortiums led by Russia LUKOIL <LKOH.MM> and U.S. firm Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> are competing for the West Qurna field.
    The millions of extra barrels of crude produced could vault Iraq to third from eleventh position among global oil producers, and shake up the balance of oil power in the Middle East.
    Iraq, now governed by its Shi'ite Muslim majority after the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, derives almost all its income from oil, and is desperate to rebuild after years of war.
    Officials hope higher oil revenues will revive the wider economy and provide jobs to steer Iraq's unemployed away from a well-funded insurgency.
    Lateef Abbass graduated from university in 1986. He vented his anger after hearing that the SOC was only giving job applications to those who were 40 years old and below.
    "We haven't had an opportunity (to work) since 1986, the time of the former regime, that means that I graduated for 22 years ago. But now (the company) has issued an order to appoint those who are aged 40 and below. Do they mean that the people who graduated a long time ago are not Iraqis? They will appoint those who graduated two years ago and even those who don't have an academic degree. Why did we study and work hard? Did we get the university degree for nothing?" Abbas said.
    The oil deals are beset by other political and legal risks, and are still far from finalised.
    General elections are due in January, and analysts fear the contracts may not be respected by a new government. Some fear the polls may trigger a spike in violence -- attacks have fallen sharply in Iraq, but bombings and shootings are still common.
    "I'm just one of the thousands of people and there are many others," said Majid Ziyad, another unemployed man who had been waiting in front of the SOC headquarters for two days.
    "I graduated six years ago and I still have no job, the people who graduated from engineering, computer and other colleges are all in the same situation. We have even applied for jobs in Baghdad. We have been here since yesterday's dawn prayers. People from Nassiriya have been here with us but they left as they heard that the jobs are exclusively for Basra people(...) We heard that there are very few application forms being given out. The government on its part should raise the percentage of job applications."
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