Ike Amos
24 September 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has appealed to oil industry workers to refrain from actions capable of disrupting industrial harmony.
The NNPC was addressing the membership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
In a statement in Abuja, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, commended the oil workers for their exemplary conduct and show of support through the years, noting, however, that if care is not taken, the gains of recent past in the industry, can be frittered away inadvertently.
He called on NUPENG and PENGASSAN to halt their planned industrial action over a labour dispute involving the management of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) and its staff.
He expressed optimism that the current dispute would soon be amicably settled.
Baru directed key management of the NNPC to work with other stakeholders to resolve the issue raised by the leadership of the oil industry unions.
In addition, the NNPC allayed the concerns of motorists and other consumers of petroleum products over possible hiccups in supply in parts of the country due to the oil workers’ ultimatum, assuring that NNPC holds adequate storage of petroleum products across the country to take care of national demand.
It said the unions had recently called on the National Assembly, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the NNPC, the Department of State Services (DSS), to intercede in a brewing impasse between CNL and its staff in Nigeria over the company’s disclosure that the contracts with all its manpower services providers would expire by the end of October 2018.
The NNPC noted that NUPENG and PENGASSAN had last Wednesday put its members on red alert fearing the new manpower services contracts may not serve the interests of its members.
