HYDERABAD, Nov 9: Workers of oil and gas fields are planning to call for a shutdown of the fields if the government does not withdraw its decision by Nov 17 to privatise the Qadirpur gas field, according to leaders of Mazdoor Ittehad Union CBA of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL).

The vice-president of the CBA’s Sindh region, Sain Bux Dhayo, and joint secretary Abdul Hameed Arain said in their addresses to a demonstration held on Sunday at the entrance to the Tando Alam Oil Complex that the government was selling off Sindh’s assets in the name of privatisation despite the fact that OGDCL was the only enterprise that had always pulled the country out of monetary crisis.

Mr Dhayo claimed that daily earnings from the four oil and gas fields of the province, Qadirpur, Boby Oil Complex, Kunar LPG plant and Tando Alam Oil Complex stood at Rs217.948 million.

He said that Qadirpur field’s output was estimated at Rs57.280 million, Boby’s at Rs24.768 million, Kunnar’s at Rs57.6 million and Tando Alam’s output came to Rs78.3 million.

As for production, Qadirpur produced 1,400 barrel oil and 500 million square cubic feet gas per day, Boby generated 3,200 barrel oil, 80 million tones of LPG and 16 million square cubic feet gas, Kunnar LPG plant 7,000 barrel oil and 40 million tons LPG while Tando Alam Oil Complex produced 15,000 barrel oil and three million square cubic feet gas, he said.

He said that workers would not allow auction of Qadirpur gas field and claimed that government had also made arrangements for selling Tando Alam Oil Complex and Kunnar LPG plant.

He said that only one unit was working in Qadirpur field and work was going on another plant and similarly another unit was under construction in Boby Oil Complex for past two years. “If the government had willed it could have completed in two months but if it wants to delay it then it’s a different issue,” he remarked. However, it the additional units were constructed the income would come to Rs440 million per day, he added.

Mr Dhayo told Dawn that a decision about countrywide strike in oil and gas fields had been taken by the union’s central body. “We will organise ‘Save Natural Resources’ conference in Hyderabad on Nov 12, which will be attended by political and nationalist parties and labour unions,” he said.

He said that oil and gas field workers would fully participate in the Nov 16 rally to be organised by the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party. The union has already started two-hour token hunger strike in all oil fields of the province from Saturday,

CBA Sindh region joint secretary Abdul Hameed Arain, Gulab Dhayo, Ghulam Hyder Hyderi and Sakhawat Hussain Shah also addressed the demonstration. CBA’s secretary general Mohammad Aqleem Khan and president Chaudhry Mohammad Akram could not be reached on phone.

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation headed by prime minister accorded approval on Friday to a plan for sale of 37 per cent shares of OGDCL’s Qadirpur gas field along with transfer of operational control.