China’s CNPC and its partners in Waha Co have started work on Al Ahdab oilfield near the town of Kut with the wrong foot. Lorrying their seismic survey rigs through farmers’ lands, destroying their wheat crop at a time when Iraq is importing wheat and when the agricultural sector is struggling for survival, is hardly a well-thought act. Destitute farmers have only their crops as a source of living. No wonder then that they revolted and took their anger at the cables laid on their lands and the power generators installed to service Al-Ahdab field’s operations.
Over the past years, Iraqi oil officials had warned that the new re-negotiated service contract for Al-Ahdab had to take into consideration the new developments that took place on the ground since the time the first production sharing contract was signed in 1997 (go to article). The major development was that in the decade the contract was idle, the area has become populated and the field operations would inevitably affect the daily lives of the Iraqis who settled there.
It might have been an oversight of the oil ministry whose duty is to coordinate with the local authorities to make sure CNPC personnel have secure access to the site of their operations. Farmers, in coordination with the governorate, should have been promised compensation for their crop in case of damage. That would have created a base for good neighborly relations between the Chinese staff and the local famers, a relation expected to span over the next 20 years, which is the lifetime of CNPC’s contract.
Latif Hamad al-Turfa, the governor of Wassit province which hosts al-Ahdab oil field, held a meeting May 10 with the head of Al-Waha Petroleum Co, the CNPC-led consortium developing al-Ahdab, and discussed options for the Chinese company to contribute to agricultural and industrial projects the local council intends to carry out in the province. Is that called “Corporate Social Responsibility” or CSR?