Nigeria’s oil workers protest against oil theft, threaten strike

By Chuks Oluigbo

Oil workers in Nigeria on Thursday staged rallies in some of the country’s major cities to draw the government’s attention to widespread oil theft which they say is putting their safety at risk, causing serious harm to the economy and the environment, and costing jobs.

The oil workers, under the auspices of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), threatened to embark on a strike that would cripple economic activities in the country if the government does not take appropriate action to end oil theft and vandalism and halt the resultant retrenchment of Nigerian workers in the sector.

Africa’s biggest oil producer has been locked in a seemingly unending battle with oil thieves and pipeline vandals resulting in production shortfall and its attendant revenue loss. The country has thus far failed to reap the benefits of oil prices above $100 in the global market. Of the 1.8 million barrels-per-day oil production quota allocated to Nigeria by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in July, the country was barely able to maintain production above 1 million bpd.

Several measures taken by the government to tackle the menace, such as real-time monitoring of activity around the pipelines, the whistleblower policy, redeployment of security personnel, among others, have yielded little to no result.

The oil workers’ rallies are coming after PENGASSAN said it had consulted with the heads of the security services, regulatory bodies, and business leaders to find solutions to the problem without much success.

“The lives of our members are even at risk,” Reuters quoted Festus Osifo, PENGASSAN national president, to have said, adding that the thieves were so organised that they call the union’s members and threaten them when pipelines or production are shut.

“If after this rally, there is no traceable progress, as an association, we may be forced to withdraw our workforce from the operating companies,” Osifo said.

While addressing journalists and some members of PENGASSAN at the Unity Fountain in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, on Thursday, Osifo said that a number of oil companies are folding up their operations in the country because of the losses to oil theft and pipeline vandalism. This also affects workers who are constantly at risk of retrenchment.

“Government must develop the muscles and political will to go after oil thieves,” he said, pointing to a recent statement by the GMD of NNPC that everybody is involved in the oil theft. “Everybody he meant are the security agencies, some oil and gas workers, host communities and some other Nigerians.”

Osifo said the issue has gone beyond making beautiful statements and trading blames.

“As a Chief of Naval Staff, you send people to Niger Delta to go and man the waterways but the crude oil is still being stolen on a daily basis on the same waterways. Maybe at best, out of the 10 vessels that are stolen, you bring only one and say you have caught the people stealing oil, what then happened to the rest? So, the rhetoric must stop. This is the time for us to act,” he said.

Ahead of the rallies, Osifo had told journalists in Abuja that the union would rework its approach because working within the confines of offices was not producing the intended results.

He said that PENGASSAN could no longer remain passive following the failure of office consultations and announced that rallies would start in the four zones on Thursday with the theme “Chasing Oil Thieves and Vandals Out of Business”.

He also said that the oil workers would continue the exercise until the government takes action to stop the vandals and oil thieves.