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Social benefits save the inhabitants of oil production areas from poverty
Economical 03/09/2023
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Baghdad: Hussein Thaghb
A number of chronic challenges were experienced by Umm Saher, who worked as a seamstress three decades ago and endured the pain of extreme poverty for decades. However, her life witnessed a clear transformation, to overcome the hardships of life, and she became a production center that resonates in the village of Safar in Badra district, where she lives.
And after it used to produce two pieces per day, the number increased and became between 15-20 pieces, and it became part of its plans to expand its production base by increasing the number of machines and employing women from the people of the region, thanks to the shift from traditional sewing to the adoption of modern machines that operate on electricity.
Licensing rounds
This transformation came after the investment company operating in the Al-Ahdab field provided electricity to the sub-district and regions within the region, based on the allocations of "social benefits for companies in production areas" that were approved in the contracts of licensing rounds.
Claims began with voices emanating from institutions concerned with oil affairs at the beginning, including the “Iraqi Coalition for Transparency in Extractive Industries” until it expanded after local communities in the oil production areas were educated and learned about the existence of rights included in oil contracts, along with civil society organizations that demand that local communities obtain her full rights.
The "Iraqi Alliance for Transparency in Extractive Industries" conveyed the suffering of thousands of families in various production areas to the concerned authorities, all the way to the companies' departments, where the results were good and the companies recognized these rights, in addition to the support of the Ministry of Oil for these directions, which guaranteed the rights of thousands of families, hoping that they would get Oil production areas have full rights from these benefits.
rights of oil societies
Alaa Mohieldin, official of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, says: "We felt that there was injustice towards the oil production areas, and here our responsibilities dictate that the coalition play a role through direct meetings and by adopting various communication tools, which have a major role in obtaining the rights of local communities from these benefits, and indeed It has become an awareness tool for these communities and alerted them to the existence of rights that they must obtain.”
He added, "The allocation of social benefits in the oil production areas has begun to show its results to the public, but it must touch the lofty goal of the existence of these benefits, which is to transfer the standard of living of families to better levels for all, despite the fact that most of the residents of these areas approached the poverty line that used to be You live through neglect and lack of production from these areas that live on lakes of blessings represented by crude oil.”
Al-Ahrar side
Ahmed Emad Al-Rubaie, a 53-year-old farmer who lives in Al-Ahrar district, described obtaining continuous electric current by saving him and the people of the region from the farmers who are now investing 100% of their land after most of them invested 25% of it.
Al-Rubaie owns 40 dunums of land, of which he invests 10 dunums by relying on diesel pumps whose fuel costs touch about one million and 750 thousand dinars.
The Chinese Oasis Company, which invested in the Al-Ahdab field, worked to provide electricity to some areas within the geographical area of the field.
Al-Rubaie explained, "I live within these areas, which made us move first from water pumps that depend on expensive kerosene fuel to pumps that work based on the least expensive electric current, and here the real transition took place, as production rates increased, due to the investment of all the space." Agricultural areas estimated at 40 dunums (each dunum is 2500 square meters).
He added, "The abundance of water made us organize irrigation times according to plant requirements, and this raised the production of the agricultural unit to rates that touched global production in some crops."
positive turn
We went towards the Halfaya region in Maysan Governorate, where the Halfaya oil field was won by Petrogyna, and Zayer Al-Talibawi, 46 years old, spoke to us here and said: “Employment of the people of the oil production areas achieved a great positive turn in the lives of the people of the region, as the living standards of many families increased and this matter It achieved economic gains, the markets moved, and there was a demand for market supplies, which created a capital cycle that expanded the size of the markets and created new job opportunities.
Al-Talibawi stressed that "the expansion of the volume of work in the field expands new job opportunities that are distributed in various specializations, some of which are available within the local community," pointing out that "somewhat higher salary levels have given more freedom in spending to the segment of workers in the oil company, and this is attributed to social benefits." to these companies.
He demanded that "the management of the investing company work to establish an advanced training center within the geographical area of the areas of production fields and work to train young people in specializations in all stages of production, in addition to providing fellowships for the youth of the region in major international universities, especially after there are school graduates." Preparatory school with high rates qualifies students to study in the best universities.
He pointed out that "local communities are now aware of the existence of social benefits for local communities, after they had neglected this matter for many years."
Petrogyna's management employs the allocation of benefits in more than one joint that provides a general service to the community, and I indicated many of the needs of the regions (according to the source) through its continuous field presence in these regions, and it is well aware of the extent of the need to communicate with the residents of the regions, but the loss of confidence in the use of funds specified in the contracts, amounting to 5 million dollars per contract (allocations for social benefits), which prevents them from being fully disbursed.
Oil Ministry
A spokesman for the Ministry of Oil, Assem Jihad, stated that "the ministry insisted that contracts for licensing rounds include an amount of 5 million dollars to be spent as social benefits for cities or villages near and surrounding the oil fields, to be spent to establish health clinics and schools, train residents in professions and make them skilled workers." .
He added, "The situation of the current companies is different from that of the Gulbenkian Company, which established the Al-Shaab International Stadium, as it used to acquire the largest amount of production. As for the companies now, they work as contractors. Despite this, this amount has been allocated, and we are working to increase this amount and take more initiatives to support local communities."
Size customizations
Hazem Al-Basri, an oil engineer at the South Oil Company, said: “We expected at first that the oil production areas are waiting for a rosy future that will move society to a new state, but the volume of social benefits provided must rise to the level of ambition, just as it rises to the volume of allocations in the many and large contracts in the province Basra.
The contracts stipulate the allocation of social benefits at a value of $5 million for each contract allocated to projects that advance the local communities, according to Al-Basri, who stated that "the size of the social benefits allocations in the contracts alone is sufficient to change the reality of the situation in this city, and we hope that the benefit money will be directed to portals that serve the local communities."
Provincial entitlements
Majed Abu Kalal of the Iraqi Coalition for Transparency in the Extractive Industries expressed the file of social contributions in the oil industry as broad and complex, due to its association with the huge Iraqi oil industry, and the work of the Iraqi Coalition for Transparency in the Extractive Industries on this file.
He disclosed the preparation and publication of (Guide to Transparency of Contracts for Oil Licensing Rounds), which included paragraphs explaining the details of the obligations of foreign companies investing in the previous four licensing rounds and the entitlement of each Iraqi province to social contributions of various types (refundable, non-refundable).
He added, "The members of the coalition worked according to the governorates to implement campaigns to help the governorates claim their dues from the petrodollars, considering these amounts as a kind of social contributions to the oil industry," explaining that the Wasit governorate can be presented as a good example, and interested and specialized civil society institutions focus on activating a community dialogue about contributions. and keeping this dialogue active, especially since some local governments in many concerned governorates do not have sufficient information on this important joint.
And Abu Kelal indicated that "to date, there are no accurate figures, due to the Ministry of Oil's refusal to publish accurate statistics on the entitlements of the governorates from social contributions, and we, as a civil society, are currently making efforts to persuade the Ministry of Oil to publish these numbers, at a time when we are working to increase the awareness of the local community regarding this matter." The issue and even raising the awareness of local governments about the entitlements of the provinces from these sums.
Poor transparency of contracts
And he hinted that according to the texts in the law and the licensing round contracts, we consider it acceptable, but the problem is in applying these laws and contractual texts, because we believe and because of the indications on reality that companies do not spend what they should spend, pointing out that there is no evidence of corruption in the implementation of shareholding projects. Despite the weakness of the transparency of these contracts, the lack of transparency of the contracts leaves the door open for accusations of corruption. The door could have been closed by activating the transparency mechanism.
We indicated here that everyone believes that there is a positive role for the "Coalition of Transparency in Extractive Industries" and civil society institutions specialized in creating community awareness among residents of oil production areas and local governments to put pressure on the operating oil companies that won the licensing rounds in order to disburse the sums of social benefits approved by the contracts. The results were satisfactory, starting with Umm Saher, employing the residents of the regions and the role of this in reviving the markets, leading to a large percentage of the residents of the regions whose standard of living has increased and a satisfactory shift has been achieved in their life in the hope of obtaining their full rights and making their regions exemplary in the truest sense of the word. which is commensurate with the richness of these regions.
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