Oil exploration firms accused of violating laws

Saturday, December 12, 2009
By our correspondent

HYDERABAD: Petroleum laws and rules are not properly implemented and multinational oil and gas exploration companies have been accused of violating agreement with the government and depriving local people of their right of employment.

According to an agreement, these exploration firms should launch public welfare schemes for locals but they did not care about them, this was disclosed in a seminar on ‘local land rights and corporate social responsibilities of oil and gas firms in Hyderabad’.

It was organised by the Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) and Oxfam at the Hyderabad Press Club on Friday.

PDI Programme Officer Ishak Soomro said oil and gas companies were destroying environment by using poisonous chemicals during exploration.

The seminar participants demanded that 50 per cent of unskilled workforce should be employed from the local population as envisaged in the Petroleum Policy 2009.

It was observed that Sindh produced 72 per cent of gas and 57 per cent of oil out of total production of the country, but mostly outsiders had been employed during the last 28 years by oil and gas firms, particularly in district Hyderabad.