NAOC Sale: PENGASSAN, NUPENG Threaten Service Withdrawal

Sequel to the sale of the Nigeria Agip Oil Company and Eni Nigeria to Oando Plc, members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) Workers have threatened withdrawal of their services from offices and offshore/field locations.

The threat came from oil and gas workers in the PENGASSAN branch in Mobil, Chevron, NUPENG, Total Energies and Shell companies.

The workers said the transaction was done without due process, adding that the planned withdrawal of their services was in solidarity support of NAOC staff over the purported sale of Agip company to Oando Plc.

This was contained in a Solidarity Letter jointly signed by the Shell branch Chairman, Ikechukwu Onyefuru, Chevron branch Secretary, Pepple Soparaipirim, Total Energies branch Secretary, Abubakar Ibrahim,  NUPENG General Secretary, Afolabi Otawale, and Mobil branch Chairman, Aniete Udoh, to the Branch Chairman, AGIP Group, PENGASSAN, PortHarcourt, and made available to Newsmen, at the Weekend.

According to the letter, the workers would not relent on taking any step, including the withdrawal of services to drive home their demand and ensuring the right thing is done.

The Letter said, “we write to express our absolute solidarity with all your members after reading with shock and consternation the purported treacherous route chosen by your Management in dealing with our NAOC Comrades in the disposal of its equity in its JV assets to Oando Oil Ltd without recourse to outstanding financial obligations to workers.

“We share in the pains and emotional trauma which you are currently facing and humbly state that you should continue to stand very firm and resolute as you go through this phase of the struggle against this injustice meted to staff and contracted staff members of PENGASSAN.

“In line with the principles of fairness, equity, and social partnership, we believe that all the in-house unions in NAOC should be engaged by Management before, during and after the divestment to address the necessary employee welfare and benefits as will be reasonably demanded by the Unions.

“Furthermore, and to forestall any negative precedence in the industry, we plead that you continue to insist that issues of comprehensive and proper Compensation, Pension and Redundancy be exhaustively addressed transparently to the satisfaction of the in-house unions and in full compliance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014.

“The CBA must be treated with the sanctity it deserves at this moment.

“We hereby express full solidarity with our comrades and other affected Nigerian Staff of NAOC and wish to declare that we are willing to take any step, including but not limited to service withdrawal to show our resolve on this subject”.

A staff of the company, who spoke to TheTide under anonymity, said “we are demanding our fate. Things have to be done properly and that is what we are asking of the management”.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu