Chevron has finally agreed to sack 444 of its expatriate workers in Nigeria, 274 of whom would go by December 2009 and another 170 by January 2010, it was learnt at the weekend.
The decision was reached at a meeting with the protesting Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), Chevron branch, which argued that the American oil giant violates the Petroleum Act that pegs the number of foreign employees.
Officials of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which supervises Chevron, were also at the meeting, according to a source who sought anonymity.
The agreement is a volte face by Chevron which had turned down earlier entreaties for it to sack 592 expatriates, among other demands.
The accord came hours after disagreement between it and the PENGASSAN reached a crisis point, with the association directing expatriates to stay at home until the knotty issues were thrashed out.
The PENGASSAN had demanded the disengagement of 592 foreign workers, to be replaced by Nigerians who could conveniently act their roles, insisting that the number amounts to an abuse of the expatriate quota, especially when such workers do jobs that ought to go for the locals: for instance, expatriates who work as transport or dispatch officers.
The NAPIMS intervened in the conflict, culminating in Chevron agreeing to let go of 274, a deal staunchly rejected by the PENGASSAN, followed by threats of a strike.
The NAPIMS investigated the allegation of employment quota’s abuse, and recommended that Chevron should relieve 447 expatriates of their duties.
Both sides stuck to their guns until the weekend breakthrough, without which the discord could have metamorphosed into another sit-in with its devastating effects on the global oil price now in record highs.
Three weeks back, Nigerian senior workers with Chevron called off a week-long strike, after accusing the management of racism, abuse of expatriate quota, reduction of Nigerian management staff, carefree attitude to safety standards, and arbitrary sack of locals.
Of the 34 top positions in Chevron, only eight are Nigerians, leaving 26 for expatriates. Of four directors reporting to the Managing Director, only one is a Nigerian. All the five Managers reporting to the Nigerian are expatriates.
“We suspended the action following the intervention of the NNPC,” a spokesman for the PENGASSAN told the AFP.
He said the work stoppage, which began on June 23, did not halt production when it lasted because “only administrative activities were disrupted.”
The workers had demanded the sack of a senior expatriate executive, Fred Nelson, who they claim was in “the habit of traumatising Nigerian workers, and always daring us to fight. We know the consequences of confrontation on the world economy, our reputation, and competitive edge. It is for these reasons that we took the option of letting you remove him in peace.”
The spokesman said Chevron’s management had agreed to look into the demand for Nelson to be sacked.
In Nigeria, Chevron operates and holds a 40 per cent interest in 13 concessions covering 2.2 million acres (8,900 square kilometres), predominantly in the onshore and near-offshore regions of the Niger Delta.
Last year, its total production from 32 fields averaged 353,000 barrels per day of crude oil, 14 million cubic feet of natural gas, and 4,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas, according to its website.