ALERT: Fuel Scarcity Looms As PENGASSAN Insists On Strike; Vows To Shut Down All Operations.

Fuel scarcity may soon hit the country as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) on Wednesday, July 6, said it would go ahead with its planned nationwide strike from Thursday, July 7.

According to Premium Times, Emmanuel Ojugbana, the group’s spokesperson, said chairmen and secretaries in its four zones and branches have concluded plans to ensure a complete shutdown of the country’s oil and gas industry operations and activities.

PENGASSAN has accused the government of deliberately frustrating efforts to resolve the issues by failing reconvene a meeting after two inconclusive negotiations on June 23 and 30 were put off.

Ojugbana urged Nigerians and industry operators who would be affected by the action to show understanding, adding that the industrial action was critical to the survival of the oil and gas industry, which remains the mainstay of the country’s economy.

Lumumba Okugbawa, the acting general secretary, said the association’s demands were not selfish, as they bordered on issues that would guarantee the continued survival of the oil and gas industry and the country’s economy.

Okugbawa listed some of the issues to include backlog of cash call arrears dating back to 2014, which he said had greatly hampered the ability of the joint venture partners with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to discharge their obligations both to the industry and their workers.
Other issues include the poor state of the country’s refineries and the massive waste of resources on turn around maintenance (TAM); continued importation of petroleum products; on-going industry reforms and NNPC restructuring as well as the politicisation of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

He said: “The irresponsible behaviour of government is negatively impacting the economy and the operating environment. In the last two months, at least 50 workers in various service companies, namely Halliburton, Schlumberger, Sapetro, Fugro, Frontier, Universal, Arko, have been laid off by the IOCs, because they do not have the means to continue to engage them”.

PENGASSAN on Monday, July 4, had directed its zonal leaders to sensitize members about the planned strike over “unresolved issues” affecting the smooth operation of the oil and gas industry.
Ojugbana said since the directive, its members have been meeting to fine-tune strategies towards the strike, with its key officers holding their final meeting on Wednesday.