| Faced with dwindling oil production due to the rising violence in Nigeria’s Niger Delta oil region, Anglo Dutch oil giant Shell has fired 1,800 workers as part of its strategy to stay afloat, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.
”I can confirm to you that 1,800 workers were relieved of their jobs in Shell on Tuesday. The workers were fired from all the locations of SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Corporation) in Warri, Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja,” the papers quoted unnamed sources as saying. Those affected included 500 ‘pay roll (permanent)’ and 1,300 ‘peripheral (casual)’ workers. It was the second time in six months that Shell would sack workers in Nigeria, after 3,000 workers were laid off in 2008. Shell’s oil production has fallen drastically from 1.150 million barrels per day before the spiralling crisis in the Niger Delta to 200,000 bpd, as militants and angry youths continue to attack its facilities. The company has borne the brunt of attacks by militants protesting the poor development and widespread poverty in the oil region. The oil firm has recently declared force majeure (inability to fulfil the terms of a contract) on crude oil shipments from its Bonny Export Terminal in Rivers and the Forcados Terminal in Delta. |
Mar122009