Northern employees at oil fields in south feel threatened by referendum

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

January 12, 2011 (BENTIU) – Northern Sudanese working at an oil fields in Southern Sudan’s Unity state, have they fear for their jobs and safety if the south separates from the north in the current referendum.

Mohamed Ibrahim Adom, an employee from ZPEB the Chinese drilling company operating Unity Power Plant, told Sudan Tribune on Monday that northern workers would prefer the country to remain united.

A southern Sudanese worker at the same company, Mayak dak Teny, said that he expects the south to secede as unity had not been made attractive to the south during the peace agreement that began in 2005.

He said that the oil field was an example of why the south should separate, as despite being in the south most of the workers were from the north. He said that people should be employed, from the areas where the oil is discovered.

Teny claimed that southern workers did not get promoted as fast as their northern counterparts and were paid less.

However, Osman Babaker Ali, Operation Officer at the ZPEB, told Sudan Tribune that the reason northerner employees are paid more is because of the distance they have to traval and that they work away from their families.

While visiting Unity Power Plant, some who support unity united their hands up together and others supporting separation waved one single unclenched palm, indicating the signs that are on the ballot papers for the referendum that began on January 9 and will end on January 15.

Most analysts believe – and public sentiment in the south indicates – that the south will opt to separate from the north taking with it most of Sudan’s known oil fields.

This has caused northern Sudanese working in the south to fear that the new country or a renewed north-south conflict could put their jobs in jeopardy. Some have opted to resign from work and move north while others have taken sick leave a travelled to northern Sudan.

There has also been a large migration of Southern Sudanese from the capital Khartoum and other areas of the north as their safety and citizenship status in the north remains unclear.

In December last year, southern Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar visited Falluj oilfield in southern Sudan, where he told workers not to “panic” as it was the regional governments policy to ensure that the oil operations continue uninterrupted irrespective of the referendum result.

He said the oil operations benefit both north and south economically, explaining that any slightest interruption for even a day or two can have negative impact on the economies of both regions.

Machar further assured that the Government of Southern Sudan has an obligation to protect economic institutions in Southern Sudan including oil company installations and employees working in the oilfields such as in Upper Nile and Unity states, situated on the south’s border with the north.

The Vice President who also spent two days at Falluj oilfield met with the senior management of the Petrodar Operating Company and told them to extend services such as water, electricity and roads to the populations of Melut County.

On his December visit an agreement was made between the Government of Southern Sudan and the national government in Khartoum on the security of the employees at Falluj oilfield. It was signed by the Sudanese defense minister and his southern counterpart in the presence of Machar and the Second Vice President of the Republic, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha.

Southern Sudan’s budget is almost solely dependent on oil revenues produced in the South. Only 2% of the southern government’s budget does not come from the regions oil revenues, which currently split 50-50 between the north and south as part the same peace deal that established the upcoming secession referendum.

Whether a form of oil sharing deal continues in the event that the south separates from the north is one of the post-referendum issues being debated between the signatories to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The only oil refineries lie in north Sudan with pipeline taking oil from the south to the refineries and then on to Port Sudan on the Red Sea to be exported.

An agreement on future oil revenues may include the north receiving a percentage of the revenue and or fees for the oil being exported and refined through the north.

Oil is one of many issues under negotiation between the Khartoum government and the South Sudan’s former rebels the SPLM, who have governed the south since the 2005 peace deal.

Other outstanding post-referendum issues include, debt, national assets, water, citizenship, demarcating the border and implementing a separate referendum in the border region of Abyei to determine whether it will join, what most believe, will be a newly-independent south.

(ST)