Yemisi Izuora
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has backed the strike action by the staff of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
NPDC is the exploration arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The workers action which commenced on tuesday is aimed at stalling the planned transfer of operatorship of oil blocks divested by Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) to private sector investors that bought the assets.
The strike is likely going to shut-in at least 115,000 barrels of crude oil per day, estimated at $6.9 million.
The workers had earlier embarked on similar action a month ago when Goodluck Jonathan’s government transferred the operatorship of one of the Shell divested assets located in oil mining lease (OML) 42 to the private sector joint venture partner of NPDC – Neconde Energy Limited.
Tuesday’s industrial action was called by the workers under the aegis of the PENGASSAN and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) NPDC branch simply referred to as NUPENGASSAN.
When contacted on phone, Mr. Femi Oke public relations officer of PENGASSAN confirmed the strike action and said the national body was concerned with the issues surrounding the action.
According to him, even though the action was not directed by the national body, the NPDC chapter reserved the right to go on strike.
Another top source from the association said that the present administration appear to be insensitive to the issue.
“The aggrieved party is right, why should a government just few weeks to wind down take such a decision, and again we have a Permanent Secretary at the Petroleum Ministry who should have acted by inviting the parties to a meeting’
‘So we shouldn’t absolve this administration from blame’ he retorted.
But Oke said, the ongoing strike is not total strike because the workers are still going to work but “only to sit and not work’.