ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At an oil exploration station overlooking Duhok's mountains, security guards claim they have not been paid for months after the company that owns the field suspended operations when oil exports were halted.
Security guards claim the site is owned by HKN Energy, which has a 62 percent share of the Sarsang block in Kurdistan Region's Duhok province.
Sleman Mohammed, one of the guards, told Rudaw he has worked at the station since it was built about 11 years ago. He and his fellow guards were last paid in August 2023, but have continued to work.
"If we leave our site, people might steal the items here. The items are expensive. We have been benefiting from this company for this long and have protected it for a long time, we would not like to leave it just like that," Mohammed said.
Oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region drastically scaled back production after Turkey halted exports through its pipeline following a court decision that ruled Ankara had violated a treaty with Baghdad when it allowed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to independently sell its oil on the international market.
"The site which is referenced is not owned by HKN nor are these workers employed by the company as claimed. There was communications equipment for which HKN employed local security. These guards were released in summer 2023. The equipment is now considered obsolete and will be removed later this year,” HKN Energy told Rudaw.
Based on information Rudaw has obtained from officials familiar with the energy sector in Duhok, oil companies have reduced their staff by 100 to 320 workers per company.
Production is down by 50 percent, Myles Caggins, spokesperson for the association of oil exporting companies known as APIKUR, told Rudaw. The oil that is produced now, just over 320,000 barrels per day, is for local consumption.
In a letter addressed to the United States Congress, APIKUR requested the American government put pressure on Baghdad to resume exports, arguing that both the oil companies and the locals have paid the price for the nearly year-long closure of Kurdistan's primary source of income.
Muhsin Sam, one of the four guards at the site in Duhok's Grdasen district, said they hope the KRG will help with their unpaid salaries.
"We have been guarding this site using our own expenses. We do not even have electricity or water. We hope the government will solve our problem," he said.
Updated at 9 pm with a comment from HKN Energy
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