Basra FCC workers demand Oil Ministry jobs
Shafaq News- Basra
Workers at the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) project, a key oil refining unit at the South Refineries Company, stepped up protests in Iraq’s southern Basra province on Sunday, demanding a return to work and positions within the Oil Ministry’s staffing structure.
Ahmed Shakir, a representative of the protesters, told Shafaq News that the workers had been seeking a resolution to their employment status for about two years, since their work on the FCC project ended.
“About 350 workers are involved,” he noted, adding that they have gained experience in the oil sector through years of work on the project.
The protesters blocked the entrances to the South Refineries Company and roads leading to it. Four protesters were reportedly injured when security forces forcibly dispersed the demonstration. The injuries affected different parts of their bodies, including one that resulted in a broken leg, Shakir said, while five protesters were also arrested.
The workers had staged a series of protests earlier this month without reaching a final resolution to their demands. Shakir attributed their continued determination in part to the use of foreign workers despite the availability of local workers who had previously worked on the project. He also stressed that the protesters would continue pressing for their employment rights, urging the relevant authorities to intervene and resolve their case.
Implemented by Japan’s JGC Corporation and financed through a concessional loan of nearly $4 billion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the FCC complex entered operation on Jan. 31, 2026, with a refining capacity of 55,000 barrels per day.
Sunday’s protest follows other recent labor actions in Basra. Last week, education-sector workers and graduates demonstrated over unpaid salaries, employment and disputed hiring lists, while employees of the province’s state-owned fertilizer company opposed plans to transfer a government-operated production line to private investment.
