Omani Protests Spread Deeper Inside PDO
Workers at Omani oil and gas fields went briefly on strike on 15 March, as they issued a warning to state-owned, Shell-led Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the country’s largest oil and gas producer. There was no major interruption of output, but the implied threat to PDO’s 550,000 b/d of oil production was clear. The PDO strike is the first industrial unrest at a state-owned Gulf oil company since protests first swept across the region this year. Workers protested for a few hours at fields including Marmul and Qarn Alam, while protests which started a week earlier at PDO’s headquarters in Muscat continued. Staff are demanding better terms and conditions and parity pay with expatriate technical workers and that more Omanis are placed in management positions. PDO has been increasingly training and placing Omanis in senior positions, but is still technically reliant on many foreigners.
Strikers closed Oman’s main industrial port in Sohar on 16 March, reportedly shutting in exports from the city’s 116,000 b/d refinery. But full operations resumed on 17 March. Near Muscat 300 manufacturing plants in an industrial zone closed when workers downed tools to demand better wages and benefits. Traffic to Muscat’s international airport has also been interrupted by protesters.
Copyright MEES 2011.
