Middle East Economic Survey

VOL. LIV

No 21

23-May-2011

High-Level Political Intervention Defuses Basra Oil Protests

Intervention by Basras new provincial governor has managed to defuse mounting protests by workers at state-owned South Oil Company (SOC). The workers were protesting against discrepancies in pay and conditions between themselves and new Iraqi employees and the foreign-led joint ventures that are spearheading Iraqs giant upstream capacity expansion.

Some demands were met, but...