9 April, 2007
Oil workers in Chad, two weeks ago, ended a three-day strike in the rich Doba oil fields, but warned further walkouts could occur. Some 500 workers are angry about job safety and security, as well as delays in meeting pay demands. US-based ExxonMobil operates the vast number of production sites in the Doba fields, as well as a controversial 1,063 kilometre pipeline to Kribi, the Atlantic port of neighbouring Cameroon.
The oil workers, led by Chad’s national labour centre UST, took three-day strike actions twice last July over pay disparities. The workers were then paid barely a third of what oil workers’ in Cameroon earn. Although the 2006 strikes did narrow that gap some, there is still a huge pay differential between oil workers in the two countries.
ExxonMobil operates the Chad-Cameroon pipeline with Patronas of Malaysia and Chevron of the US as partners. The rich Doba fields of southern Chad are now producing 150,000-barrels-per-day, and are expected to yield 200,000 in the near future. Doba has reserves estimated at 900 billion barrels over the next 25 years.
Development of the Doba oil fields, together with the three-year-old pipeline to Kribi, has been mired in World Bank controversy. That included a year-long suspension of Bank funds for the project. Construction of the pipeline was also plagued by labour and human rights violations. Many contract workers for Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the building consortium put together by the oil companies, were not paid their wages. As well, an HIV/AIDS rate along the pipeline is three times the national averages of Chad and Cameroon, figures that reflect poorly on the partnering companies’ social responsibility.