Protesters blockading oil and gas fields in southern Tunisia have reached an agreement with the government to end a sit-in and allow production to restart immediately, the government and protesters said on 16 June.

Protests over jobs in southern Tataouine and Kebili provinces hit oil and gas production in a region where French company Perenco and Austrian producer OMV operate. The deal calls for jobs in oil companies and development projects.

Labor Minister Imed Hammami told a press conference the agreement would allow production to restart immediately.

“It is an agreement that addresses all our demands for the region, and we will end the sit-in,” Tarek Haddad, one of the protest leaders at the Kamour site, told Reuters.

The deal calls for 1,500 jobs in oil companies, a budget of 80 million dinars (USD 32.66 million) for a development fund and another 3,000 jobs in environmental projects.

Protesters were pressing demands for jobs and a share of the country’s energy wealth and forced the closure of two oil and gas pumping stations in Kamour in Tatatouine and in Kebili.

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