{"id":113280,"date":"2026-05-14T09:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/113280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:39:10","slug":"workers-who-built-iraqs-fcc-refinery-protest-exclusion-from-oil-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/113280\/","title":{"rendered":"Workers who built Iraq\u2019s FCC refinery protest exclusion from oil jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            2026-05-14T09:06:36+00:00<\/p>\n<p>                                    font<\/p>\n<p>                                            Enable Reading Mode<\/p>\n<p>\n                                        A-<br \/>\n                                        A<br \/>\n                                        A+\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>Shafaq News- Basra<\/p>\n<p>Former workers on Iraq\u2019s FCC refinery project continued protests for a second consecutive day outside the South Refineries Company in Basra on Thursday, demanding employment and permanent positions within the Oil Ministry after helping build and operate a refinery project \u201ccentral\u201d to fuel self-sufficiency efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of engineers, science graduates, and former FCC workers blocked the Al-Barijisya gate near Well 20. Protesters told Shafaq News that more than 350 former staff members had participated in constructing and operating the project over several years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were surprised after the project became operational that we were dismissed without rights or job guarantees,\u201d protest representative Ahmed Shaker said, adding that demonstrations had continued for more than a year and a half without official solutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral positions went to relatives and friends of officials,\u201d he claimed, while experienced workers who had spent years inside the project were overlooked.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778749634708.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Oil Ministry did not immediately comment on the protests.<\/p>\n<p>Oil-rich southern provinces, particularly Basra, have witnessed recurring protests in recent years, with demonstrators frequently <a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/society\/FCC-workers-halt-Basra-refinery-access-over-hiring-demands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">blocking<\/a> roads leading to oil fields, refinery facilities, and ports over unemployment and poor living conditions despite the region\u2019s vast energy wealth. Iraq\u2019s unemployment rate stood at 15.5% in 2025, according to Trading Economics, while the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has reported 47,000 legally registered foreign workers in the country, even as more than one million Iraqis remain officially unemployed.<\/p>\n<p>The Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) project\u2019s Japanese-funded complex, implemented by JGC Corporation through a concessional loan estimated at nearly $4 billion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), officially entered operation on January 31, 2026, with a refining capacity of 55,000 barrels per day. During a 2025 visit to the site, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani described the FCC complex as a \u201clandmark step\u201d toward reducing Iraq\u2019s dependence on imported fuel products and achieving gasoline self-sufficiency, explaining that Iraq\u2019s annual spending on imported petroleum products had previously exceeded $5 billion before refinery expansion projects sharply reduced imports.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/Report\/Iraq-s-protests-after-Tishreen-A-system-that-learned-how-to-contain-the-street\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Read more: Iraq\u2019s protests after Tishreen: A system that learned how to contain the street<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-05-14T09:06:36+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Basra Former workers on Iraq\u2019s FCC refinery project&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5277,152,94,4308,39247],"class_list":{"0":"post-113280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-basra","9":"tag-breaking","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-protests","12":"tag-workers-who-built-iraqs-fcc-refinery-protest-exclusion-from-oil-jobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116572269349599287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}