The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has heaped the blame for the crisis rocking the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry, which has forced 150,000 workers into unemployment market, on Federal Government’s lack of political will to address frontally the many challenges in the critical sector of the economy.
Chairman, TUC, Rivers State chapter, Comrade Chika Onuegbu, who spoke in Port Harcourt, regretted that although the low oil price was a global challenge, the inability of successive governments since 2000 to conclude reforms in the oil and gas sector, and pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), was a major local problem that has negatively impacted the industry.
Onuegbu said: “the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has repeatedly expressed worries over the increasing challenges in the nation’s oil and gas sector, which have led to the loss of 150,000 workers between 2013 and February, 2016″, and government has yet to do anything concrete to save the situation form worsening.
The TUC chairman said that the oil and gas industry has been on a standstill for years due to the inability of government to re-negotiate long expired agreements with industry operators, including joint venture partners, while outstanding labour-related issues have not been addressed, adding that this has no doubt delayed huge foreign direct investments in the sector.
According to him, virtually all JV and Production Sharing Contracts have expired without any serious effort to put new legal frameworks in place to guide operations of the industry. Consequently, oil production and gas regimes have stagnated, thereby adding little or no new value to the nation’s development process.
Onuegbu said: “PENGASSAN is disturbed by the undue delay in the dispensation of justice by the National Industry Court (NLC), prevalence of unfair labour practices and abuse of trade union rights in the oil and gas industry.
“We are also against some companies that have invented nomenclatures such as Individual Contract Agreement (ICA), Secondee, no solicitation, among others, aimed at preventing workers from exercising their constitutional rights to join trade unions and bargain collectively.
“These have led to the sack of 150,000 workers in the oil and gas industry and adversely increased the high rate of criminality, while unleashing untold hardship on the citizenry,” he said.
He linked the persistent scarcity of refined petroleum products to neglect of the refineries by successive governments over the years, adding that the problem of insecurity has increased cost of doing business in Nigeria.
Onuegbu charged government to make the refineries work again, and encourage the building of more refineries and petrochemical plants to boost the diversification of the economy.
The TUC boos also challenged government to fulfil its core mandate to the people by ensuring the security of lives and property so as to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria, and create opportunities for employment generation and youth empowerment for economic growth.
He urged the federal and state governments in the Niger Delta region, to quickly intervene and bring pressure to bear on the oil companies to forestall looming strikes and other forms of industrial action which could worsen the already difficult operating environment in the state and country.
Onuegbu warned that if urgent steps are not taken to address the many challenges, the nation’s oil and gas sector could face imminent collapse.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana