Melut residents hold peaceful demonstrations on Monday, August 24, 2020 - demanding building of all feeder roads and main roads” that link the country neighboring areas | Credit | Courtesy

Youth in Melut County of Upper Nile State have gone on a strike to demand cooperate social responsibility services from the Dar Petroleum Company.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a company’s commitment to manage the social, environmental and economic effects of its operations responsibly and in line with public expectations.

The angry residents have accused the company of negligence in disposing of waste and provision of services such as clean drinking water to the surrounding community.

They reportedly stormed the operational center of DPOC on Monday morning.

A representative of the protesters told Eye Radio that they want the company to live up to its promises of also supporting the rehabilitation of feeder roads, and addressing environmental and employment concerns in Melut.

Aduai Kuot argued they young people also want to be given employment opportunities.

“Some of used to be employed, but the youth of the county are now jobless. No one cares about us. They bring people directly from juba,” he stated.

He spoke via a telephone from the scenes of the protest in Melut.

“Our second concern is the environment and the chemicals that are used in the oil field. They have cost a lot of health damage as we now know we are suffering strange diseases,” Kuot added.

A consortium of China National Petroleum Corporation (41 percent), Petronas (40 percent), Nilepet (8 percent), Sinopec (6 percent) and Tri-Ocean Energy (5 percent), DPOC is an exploration and production company based in Juba and operating Blocks 3 and 7 in the Melut Basin.

Dar Petroleum is the only oil and gas consortium currently producing oil at any significant volumes in South Sudan, according to Africa Oil & Power.

Its fields have a capacity of 175,000 barrels per day, with a potential of up to 240,000 barrels per day.

The company is currently reportedly producing about 110,000 barrels per day.

In 2019, governors in Upper Nile region, during the national dialogue conference, accused some oil companies of not factoring in the environment and the welfare of the ordinary South Sudanese living around the oil fields.

They called for the review of oil contracts that were signed with oil companies before the independence of South Sudan.