Oil workers in the Depart-ment of Petroleum Resources on Thursday vowed to shut down Nigeria’s 21 crude oil export terminals by February 11, 2009 over the engagement of Cobalt Services Nigeria Limited as a pres-shipment agent.
They claimed that the Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, who allegedly appointed the company had interest in it (the firm).
The oil workers therefore demanded the termination of the contract between the Federal Government and the foreign company as the only condition for dropping their threat.
They spoke at a press conference in Abuja shortly after the joint executive council meeting of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of the DPR branch.
According to the aggrieved workers, Cobalt began work on January 1, 2009 and is to earn 0.1 per cent fee on every barrel of crude oil exported.
In their calculation, the inspection bill amounted to $87,400 daily or the value of 693,500 barrels per year of crude oil.
The workers argued that the Federal Government would end up paying $31.9m annually to Cobalt based on a conservative price of $46 per barrel.
According to the Chairman of PENGASSAN, DPR branch, Mr. Aniekan Jonny Akpan, the minister appointed the company even when it was suspected that it lacked the necessary expertise to carry out the job.
Besides, he said the services provided by the firm was a duplication of the functions already performed by the DPR.
Akpan said, ”Cobalt International Services lacks the technical know-how and has continued to depend solely on DPR for data and information to carry out the work.”
He explained that the workers had earlier given government a 21-day ultimatum which expired on Thursday.
However, he explained that the decision to extend the deadline was because of their concern not to cause further hardship on the general public which was already agitated over developments in the oil sector, especially the global financial meltdown.
Responding to questions, the Northern Zonal Chairman, PENGASSAN, Mr. Mohammed Bulama Saidu, who also attended the news conference, noted that by using Cobalt as a pre-shipment agent, the Federal Government was exposing the secret of the nation‘s economy to the outside world.
He wondered why it took such a step at a time when other nations were securing and guarding their economies in view of the global financial crisis.
On whether government decided to hire the company in a bid to fix leakages identified in the course of crude oil production and export, Saidu insisted that such leakages were normally experienced while moving crude from production platforms to the export terminal.
He explained that it was not the responsibility of the DPR to guide pipelines.
Saidu said, ”There is a difference between production figure and exportable figure. As the product moves to the terminal, there will be leakages and not at the crude oil terminal.
“There are 10 different agencies at the export terminal-Army, Police, NAPIMS, NPA and many others and their records must tally before the certificate is accepted. DPR only issues clean certificate of quantity.
“We wonder why they are bringing this company to issue certificate of quantity, an action which the Federal Government under the late Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Abacha, tried and failed.
”We don‘t see any reason why somebody will bring an international oil company and duplicate a function and take our crude. We should not allow it.”
Efforts to get Lukman‘s reaction failed as his Chief Press Secretary, Mrs. Florence Mohammed, said he was in a meeting at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation office in Abuja.