Posted by Sunday Ojeme


Our members have begun gradual withdrawal from oil and gas installations belonging to Mobil in Nigeria… Final shut down will be with the withdrawal of our members in Qua Iboe Terminal with about 14 loading locations by midnight Friday –PENGASSAN

Following alleged anti-labour activities in Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited, oil workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) are threatening to cut the country’s crude production by as much as 600,000 barrels per day.

The threat is coming just as crude oil production is increasing from the ugly past experienced as a result of attacks on oil and gas installations by militants in the Niger Delta. PENGASSAN, during the second day picketing of ExxonMobil Nigeria premises in Lagos, made it clear that the workers had started gradual withdrawal from oil and gas installations belonging to Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, the Nigeria’s ExxonMobil arm.

Currently, Mobil is one of the largest oil producing companies in Nigeria with about 660,000 barrel per day (bpd). Nigeria’s revenue will be negatively impacted if the oil wells and shut down of oil and gas installations by PENGASSAN is carried out.

Addressing the workers yesterday, the PENGASSAN Lagos Zonal Chairman, Comrade Abel Agarin, said there had been gradual shutting down of the plants in Mobil locations all over the country. “Our members have begun gradual withdrawal from oil and gas installations belonging to Mobil in Nigeria. Our members in the loading bay at Best Operations Platform (BOP), where crude oil is loaded have been withdrawn, while those in Erha and Ushan FPSO will be joining by midnight today (Wednesday) and those in Bonny River Terminal will join by midnight Thursday. Final shut down will be with the withdrawal of our members in Qua Iboe Terminal with about 14 loading locations and many well heads by midnight Friday.

“By Friday, other Inter national Oil Companies (IOCs) such as Chevron, Shell, Addax, Total and Agip and indigenous oil companies will join. We are also mobilising our members in Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS),” he said.

Members of PENGASSAN started a threeday warning strike last Wednesday to protest the refusal of the ExxonMobil management to honour an agreement reached during a tripartite meeting with the senior staff union and the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

They said that in the agreement brokered by the minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, the management agreed to review the sack of 83 employees in December and that none of the workers that participated in a protest in December will be sanctioned for their actions.

“Without honouring the agreement, the management went ahead to suspend other union leaders in the company that took part in the December protest. The company has no respect for constituted authority of the land, as represented by the Minister of Labour and Productivity. The management disobeyed the law and authority of Nigeria and we find this unacceptable to us,” he said.

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