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TUNIS. — Tunisian protesters demanding jobs and a share in energy wealth have closed down another oil pumping station in defiance of government efforts to protect oil and gasfields with troops and negotiate an end to unrest.
Protesters peacefully shut a pumping station at Faouar in southern Kebili province, where French oil company Perenco operates, according to TAP state news agency and Mosaique FM and Shems FM radio stations.
It is the second pumping station closed by protests in the southern provinces, where for weeks groups of unemployed men have been holding sit-ins and threatening to blockade oil and gas production to demand more for their marginalised regions.
“We shut down the pumping station for Perenco, where we are carrying out our sit-in protest. We had no problem with the army. We are just demanding jobs, and more transparency about where the oil wealth goes,” Faker Ajmi, one of the protesters told Reuters by telephone.
The energy ministry did not reply to a request for comment. A spokesman for Perenco also did not immediately respond to an email asking about the status of their operations. Officials said earlier this month Perenco halted production at two fields for gas and condensate output. — Reuters.
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