(Reuters) – Nigeria’s senior oil workers’ union PENGASSAN said on Thursday it will resume talks with Chevron Corp after the government intervened late on Wednesday to avert an imminent strike.
“Since the government has created a platform to continue talks, we are still hoping the strike won’t happen,” PENGASSAN Secretary General Bayo Olowoshile told Reuters, but added there was still “lots of fear and suspicion” among Chevron workers.
A second union official said three-party talks were rescheduled for early next week from Friday to ensure all stakeholders could be in Abuja for the meeting.
Chevron’s output from Nigeria is around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), of which its equity share is around 129,000 bpd, and a strike could sharply cut the country’s output.
In April, a strike by an oil workers union at Exxon Mobil Corp’s (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit in Nigeria shut down nearly all the company’s 800,000 bpd production in the West African country.
Talks between the union and Chevron management broke down on Wednesday but the oil ministry intervened at the eleventh hour to avoid strike action, saying it had persuaded the U.S. energy giant to reduce its expatriate work force in Nigeria.
PENGASSAN has been demanding the removal of the company’s expatriate director, saying he has too many foreign staff.
Olowoshile said there were still issues to be resolved, including union demands over safety concerns. But he was optimistic that industrial action was not imminent.
Asked if there would be a strike, he said: “I don’t see it in the immediate future.”