Tunisia: How legal limbo allows fracking by Serinus Energy

In the Kebili region, at the gates of the Tunisian Sahara, numerous gas and oil wells dot the panorama of Chott El Djerid and its surrounding villages. A protected area, classified as a RAMSAR zone of humid importance and notably popular for its eerie landscape of pale salty water puddles set in the middle of the desert.

It is here, however, that the operations of various oil and gas licenses have been the scenery for repeated strikes and sit-ins by local civil society, which has been demanding better social and environmental monitoring of foreign companies operating in Tunisia since at least 2012.

Despite local opposition and outcry from international NGO's, the former polish company Serinus has been suspected to resort to fracking and unconventional oil and gas extraction on various Tunisian hydrocarbons fields located in these areas, as well as in the region of Tataouine.