Senior staff of the Mobil Producing Unlimited, the offshore arm of the ExxonMobil that produces about 860,000 barrels of crude per day, has finally shutdown all the company�s production locations to press home their demands for improved welfare packages and other issues in the industry.
For the third day running, the workers also prevented expatriates and other top management staff of the company, except members of the company�s board of directors and some managers, from accessing their office buildings and field operations in Lagos, Eket and Port Harcourt.
The company�s management on Saturday admitted that there was a �partial shutdown of production� but did not give a figure.
Prior to the strike, Mobil had overtaken Shell as the biggest oil producer in Nigeria following the continuous attacks on Shell�s facilities that has halved the firm�s output in recent months.
The workers are demanding for improved welfare packages, repair of some of the company�s old facilities including some pipelines which had started leaking, non-compliance with the 2004 Pension Reform Act as agreed with the union when the Act came into existence, and abuse of expatriate quotas against the rules guiding the practices in the country.
According to the Mobil branch Chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mr. George-Olumoroti Olusola, the workers embarked on the strike after the negotiation between them and the management broke down on Wednesday.
Olusola said that the strike, which entered its third day on Saturday, was necessary because of the insensitivity of the management to the issue after the expiration of seven days ultimatum handed down to the management by the company, adding that by 12 midnight of Thursday, every activities of the company had come to a halt.
�The process of shutting down operations is a cumbersome one and we will not want a situation whereby when we shut down finally, there will be any damage to the machines. So, we began gradual shutting down of the machines in all our field locations in Eket and offshore locations since Thursday morning and by midnight, the shut down of the machines were completed�, he said.
He accused Mobil�s management of foot dragging on the issue of the collective bargaining, which was started about three months ago, adding that they want a speedy resolution of the matter.
It was gathered that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mobil�s joint venture partner in its oil and gas operations, which was also badly affected by the strike has called a meeting of both parties to settle the issues