Oscarline Onwuemenyi 09 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The two major unions in the oil and gas sector, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, are opposed to Federal Government’s plan to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into 30 companies.
The two unions vowed to resist the move to unbundle the corporation, saying it is an attempt to cause industrial crisis in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
Reacting to the plan as announced last week by Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, PENGASSAN’s spokesman, Mr. Emmanuel Ojugbana, told reporters that the Act establishing the NNPC must be repealed before the company could be unbundled successfully.
He also charged that it was unfortunate that the Federal government would contemplate such move without carrying the two unions in the sector along.
Similarly, NUPENG’s President, Mr. Igwe Achese, said the government needed a law to repeal the existing Act which established the NNPC to institute the changes.
Achese said that the union would not accept the decision without knowing how the manpower that would operate in the 30 companies would be managed.
“We will resist the move to unbundle the company because we see it as an attempt to cause industrial crisis. Our fear is that the NNPC can start disengaging workers as a result of this plan,” the union leader said.
He, therefore, called for a stakeholders’ meeting that would involve NUPENG and PENGASSAN on the matter.
