Graduates clash with security at Basra Oil Company sit-in

BASRA — Dozens of engineering, petroleum and science graduates began an open-ended sit-in outside Basra Oil Company headquarters on Sunday demanding contracts with state oil companies, and said security personnel used sticks and batons to break up part of the gathering. Video reviewed by 964media showed security forces confronting demonstrators.

They want direct contracts with self-financed companies including Basra Oil Company, South Gas Company and Iraqi Drilling Company, arguing that those firms fund operations and staff from their own revenues and can therefore hire without waiting for the Finance Ministry to create budget-funded positions.

It follows protests by serving oil workers over a separate change to how crude is priced between the oil and finance ministries. Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair told employees on Aug. 25 that reports of cuts to salaries, incentives or profit-sharing were false, after demonstrations at the Shuaiba refinery in Basra and in Dhi Qar.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said the previous arrangement priced about a million barrels a day at 5,000 dinars a barrel for the Oil Ministry and that crude will now be supplied at a 30% discount to international prices, with consumer subsidies maintained. He said the change would raise an additional 17.8 trillion dinars a year, about $13.5 billion at the official rate, and described the old system as a source of waste absorbed by maintenance costs and employee incentives.