The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has threatened to stop work at oil pumping stations and export terminals in the Niger Delta by February 5 unless the government could guarantee their safety.
PENGASSAN, the union for senior workers in the country�s oil sector, said �The violence is out of control and the work locations in the Niger Delta are too dangerous for our members to continue.�
PENGASSAN�s General Secretary, Bayo Olowoshile, in an interview with Bloomberg News by the telephone on Monday, said, �If we withdraw, you can be sure that it is going to affect production and exports.�
The association�s President, Mr. Peter Esele, had earlier in the month urged the oil workers in the volatile Niger Delta to be prepared to shut down oil production if they felt their lives were in danger due to recent unrest.
�We have told their leaders to inform their surbordinates to take whatever legal measures they deem fit, including shutting down the rigs or halting production once there is a threat to their lives,� Esele had told AFP.
PENGASSAN and its sister blue-collar union, NUPENG, are the two most unions for Nigerian oil workers.
Last year, at least 37 Nigerian soldiers and dozens of Nigerian oil workers were killed by the militants while more than 60 foreigners, mostly oil workers, were kidnapped, and later released.
Oil accounts for more than 95 percent of the foreign exchange earnings of Nigeria, Africa�s largest oil producer, and the world�s sixth largest exporter.
More than 200 people, the majority of them Nigerian oil workers, have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta in the past year.
The Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Mr. Jeroen van der Veer, also said on Monday that the Nigeria remained a �huge security problem� that shows no signs of letting up.
�We have a huge security problem � our staff can�t work,� Van der Veer, 59, said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland.
�When we can return to the Delta,a we will restart production and over time develop new projects, but we have to get the security situation much better than it is today.�
Shell�s portion of lost production in the Nigeria, according to him, is about 160,000 to 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Shell�s offshore projects for the most part haven�t been affected, Van der Veer said.