Another Crude Awakening in Iran

After the revolution, oil workers gush discontent

The crunch that was caused by the cutoff of oil from Iran earlier this year taught the world how deeply dependent it is on crude from that tortured land. Lately the export flow has been back up to 3.3 million bbl. per day, but there were reports last week that production is dropping, and once again the supply is endangered. A shutdown of Iranian production would put the U.S. in a tough position. Oil stocks are already very low, and consumption would have to be reduced by at least 1.7 million to 2 million bbl. per day. "We would hope that other OPEC producers would help out," says a Department of Energy official, "but even so, it would produce much more stringency in the market and, of course, higher prices."

That danger is not so remote. In Tehran, the management of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) is in tatters. More important, at the refinery in Abadan and the oilfields of Ahvaz, searing unrest among workers could blow up into crippling strikes. TIME Tehran Bureau Chief Bruce van Voorst reports:

In dusty, steamy Abadan, where temperatures routinely hover at 100DEG F and the airport VIP lounge has lately been converted into a mosque, an air of normality appears to have returned. But life is anything but normal inside the world's largest refinery (capacity: 630,000 bbl. per day) in the heart of the city. Members of the workers' council argue interminably. Said one welder after a particularly boisterous session: "Nobody can make any decisions. All anybody does is talk."

Convinced that they were the dominant force in ousting the Shah, the oil workers feel that they are being neglected by the revolutionary government. They are insisting on 50% to 100% wage increases and are threatening to walk out if they do not get them. Members of the workers' council have been demanding sweeping changes in management. But when NIOC Chief Hassan Nazih fired six of the top directors in April, the rest of the top management resigned en masse in protest, forcing Nazih abjectly to ask everyone back. The refinery simply could not run without them. The workers then immediately voted to strike, but agreed to put off a walkout pending further talks with Nazih or his representatives. If a strike hits Abadan, the walkout would certainly spread to other fields.

Labor peace in Abadan and Ahvaz, another big oil city nearby, is also threatened by 28,000 unemployed "contract" workers. They are highly skilled electricians, welders and drilling-rig operators who had been employed by foreign firms. Work has halted while the foreign contracts are being "reassessed" by the government. These men were accustomed to wages of up to $6,000 a month under the Shah. Unable to find work, they eke out an existence on a $200 to $300 monthly dole from the government. They also congregate in the streets, where their demonstrations for jobs have triggered violent reactions from the Orthodox Muslims and in particular the "komitehs," the local administrative and security arms of Ayatullah Khomeini. As one of the unemployed put it: "We have fights with komiteh members almost every night."

The workers are beginning to object to the clergy's heavy hand. They gripe about the censorship of movies and TV, the ban on alcohol and the increasing powers of the komiteh. Complained one worker: "It is almost like having SAVAK [the Shah's secret police], maybe even worse. I am beginning to watch my words in the presence of my children, because they might tell on me as a duty to God."

All these frustrations are being exploited by Marxists. Leftist groups of various sorts are well organized in the oilfields, in the Abadan refinery and even among the well-paid, rather pampered workers at the port of Kharg Island, whose highly sophisticated pipeline network and oil flow control mechanism make it the most vulnerable element in the Iranian oil system.

There is considerable tension between the workers and NIOC Chief Nazih. They had originally cheered him because he was the Ayatullah Khomeini's man, but now they view him with suspicion as they try to balance then" demands with the need to keep the industry going fairly smoothly and economically. Nazih, a lawyer, is in over his head trying to direct a complex oil industry, and his superiors know it. He may well be ousted soon.

Meanwhile, NIOC's Tehran headquarters are in disarray. Many decisions are hanging fire. Two competing workers' councils constantly battle, challenge each other's decisions and block action.

Amid the chaos, the prospects for further disruptions in Iran's exports of petroleum seem dangerously large. Should they occur, Congress would hurriedly have to dust off the mandatory conservation programs that legislators had rejected when it appeared that the U.S. could scrape by without them.

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