| schema:articleBody
| - Protesters demanding jobs in Tunisia's marginalised south have blocked a key pipeline carrying half the country's oil production after hundreds stormed a crude production site, the energy ministry said Friday. On Thursday demonstrators pushed their way past military forces to enter the remote El-Kamour production site in the desert south of the southeastern town of Tataouine, an AFP journalist had reported. Some of the protesters shut down a valve blocking the flow of crude oil in the pipeline that runs into Tataouine, effectively stopping the delivery of half of Tunisia's production, the energy ministry said. "The oil that runs in the pipeline linking oil fields in the Tataouine desert to the Skhira terminal has been interrupted," said Hamed Matri, an advisor to the energy minister. He told AFP "the lost productivity is very significant" and that the procedure needed to reopen the valve and resume the flow of oil to its previous level was complex. Negotiations were underway with the protesters to resolve the standoff, Matri said. The Tunisian oil sector is modest, producing on average 38,000 to 40,000 barrels per day. Fifty-five percent of it is extracted from the Tataouine region where Austria's OMV, Italy's ENI and Anglo Tunisian Oil & Gas have exploration rights, according to the energy ministry. Tataouine has been gripped by weeks of unrest, with protesters staging sit-ins and demonstrations to demand the government honour a 2017 pledge to invest millions to develop the region. Tunisia's south is one of the countries most marginalised regions, burdened with above-average unemployment, failing infrastructure and a stunted private sector. "There is a real problem of development in Tataouine," Matri said. Earlier this month dozens of demonstrators set up a protest camp in the desert near El-Kamour before hundreds forced their way into the oil production site on Thursday, pushing their way past troops deployed to guard it. "The military forces acted responsibly, professionally and calmly to avoid causing any victims and aggravating the situation," the defence ministry said in a statement late Thursday. But it warned that the army was "responsible for protection security... and our national wealth, and will not accept any destructive bids". The latest unrest come as Tunisia is mired in a political crisis following Wednesday's resignation of prime minister Elyes Fakhfakh, amid a political row with the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, the largest in parliament, over allegations of conflict of interest. ayj/cnp/hkb/sw
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)