Basra graduates march for oil sector jobs on 11th day of protests

BASRA — Graduates marched from the Basra Oil Company headquarters toward the Makina area on Wednesday, the eleventh day of their campaign for jobs in the oil sector, with footage recorded by 964media showing large numbers of women taking part alongside men.

The march was peaceful, in contrast to earlier days. Banners called on the government to find lasting solutions to unemployment among degree holders by including them in contracts and jobs at oil companies and other profitable firms in the governorate, and protesters appealed to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Oil Minister Bassem Khudair and Basra’s members of parliament to intervene.

The campaign began on Aug. 30 with an open-ended sit-in outside the company, where graduates in engineering, petroleum and science demanded direct contracts with the self-financed companies under the Oil Ministry — the Basra Oil Company, South Gas Company and Iraqi Drilling Company. Video reviewed by 964media showed security forces confronting demonstrators, who said officers used sticks and batons. By Sept. 2 protesters were blocking several state oil facilities, including sites of the Basra Oil Company, the Oil Products Distribution Company and the Iraqi Oil Tanker Company, with security forces stopping them closing the main gate and detaining several participants.

Zaidi told the Finance Ministry on Sept. 7 to include jobs or contract positions for long-term graduates in the next federal budget, based on ministries’ staffing needs. That does not address what these graduates are asking for: contracts with companies that fund their own operations and staff from revenue, rather than posts financed through the federal budget. Iraq has no 2026 budget, and the next bill is due in parliament next month.

Neither the Basra Oil Company nor the Oil Ministry has responded to the demands in the eleven days of protest. Oil engineering graduates demonstrated outside the same headquarters in 2023 over 10,000 jobs allocated to the governorate in the federal budget, and hundreds protested outside the South Gas Company in 2024 after nearly a year of demonstrations at fields and company offices.