Nigeria’s oil union decrees that the Dangote refinery’s gas supply be stopped due to mass sackings
The oil workers’ union in Nigeria has escalated a labor conflict after hundreds of Nigerian workers were fired by ordering its members to cut off the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s gas supply.
Major oil companies’ branches of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) were instructed to immediately stop delivering gas and crude to the refinery.
A letter dated September 26 that Reuters was able to view claimed that Dangote management had engaged in “misinformation and propaganda” rather than dealing with the alleged wrongful disengagement of unionized employees.
It is necessary to close the refinery’s crude oil supply valves. Lumumba Okugbawa, the general secretary of PENGASSAN, added in the directive, “Vessels bound there should have their loading operations immediately stopped.”
The order was issued just days after Dangote Refinery fired its Nigerian employees and allegedly replaced them with foreigners, primarily from India. The terminations, according to the corporation, were a part of a reorganization that aimed to increase operational effectiveness and safety.
When asked about the PENGASSAN letter, Dangote Refinery did not immediately reply.
The issue intensifies pressure on the $20 billion refinery, which in response to shortages in crude supply and foreign exchange mismatches declared it will stop selling petroleum in naira on September 28. Concerns about growing fuel costs and additional pressure on Nigeria’s already precarious currency have been raised by the action.
PENGASSAN ordered union chapter chairmen at oil companies to “report promptly the progress of the directive,” indicating a planned shutdown that would cause fuel supply disruptions in the most populous nation in Africa.
