SPDC’s Indigenous Staff Shut Down Forcados Terminal

Local staff of the Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) have blocked the company’s forcados terminal.
The angry workers who seized the facility last Thursday, according to authoritative source were protesting alleged plan by management of SPDC to sack workers due to falling revenue occasioned by dwindling oil price.
The Tide source said top management of the company were strategising to lay off community workers while saving their own jobs. “Apart from saving their own jobs, the top management of the company also protected their own brothers from the sack plan.
He explained that even with university degrees, the local staff are poorly paid, not fed, not accommodated or transported by the company, who marked them out for the odd jobs.
So they decided to shut down operations in forcados terminal pending when the company would agree to withdraw from the move and also improve community workers welfare.
The source who pleaded anonymity revealed that the aggrieved workers overpowered company staff and took control of parts of the core and secondary zones leading to near total shut down of operations.
The source also described the core zone as area where crude is being stored after treatment especially the crude for export is said to be processed and metered at the core zone stressing that with the situation, selling or bringing crude oil from the field have been shut out, due to the situation.
He said the secondary zone housing the control room was taken over by protesters thereby frustrating loading of vessels.
Department of State Security (DSS), the Joint Task Force and Police who were called in, would not help the company as they were said to have left the scene after being briefed by the protesters.
We further learnt that appeal by the Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) demanding they evacuate the facility and dialogue with management failed.

Chris Oluoh