SUKKUR, Oct 4: Hundreds of workers of Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) will stage a protest demonstration in front of parliament house on Monday, while a sit-in will also be staged near Chanda oil field, NWFP, on Tuesday to vent their anger against proposed privatisation of profit –earning Qadirpur gas field near Ghotki.

Talking to this correspondent on phone on Saturday evening, General Secretary of OGDCL Mazdoor Ittehad Labour Union (CBA) Mohammad Aqleem Khan, said that their struggle against the privatisation of Qadirpur gas field would continue till the government is forced to withdraw the proposal of its privatisation.

He said that privatisation of Qadirpur gas field on the one hand would render hundreds of workers jobless and, on the other hand a profit-earning gas field would fall in the hands of private owners. He said that at present 25 wells of Qadirpur gas field were giving production on commercial basis and three more wells were under process and soon start production.

He said that the gas field was producing 600 million cubic feet of gas per day, which is worth Rs100 million while 1300 barrels of crude oil is also being produced per day, which generates a revenue of Rs7.5 million and added that Qadirpur gas field was meeting 33 per cent of gas requirement of the country.

Expressing his anxiety over the privatisation of national asset such as Qadirpur gas field, he said that the workers and people of the area have harnessed the project with their blood and the project consists of many villages and hundreds of acres of agricultural land. However, he reiterated that privatisation of Qadirpur gas field would never be allowed at any cost.