Oil workers have given the government a 21-day ultimatum to reverse the appointment of a pre-shipment inspector for crude exports or face the risk of industrial action.
The notice served on Thursday by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) came after their meeting in Benin.
A communique the unions issued said the appointment of Cobalt International Services for the job is not acceptable to them, as it is a waste of money, since the inspection is the statutory function of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which has performed it over the years.
According to them, statistics showed that the 0.1 per cent on Freight on Board (FOB) allocated to Cobalt amounts to 1,900 barrels of crude oil per day (pd), based on the daily export of 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd).
“This in monetary terms shows that Nigeria will lose $87,400 (about N11.8 million) daily based on the present market price of $46 per barrel. One can now wonder what the country will lose in a year with an increase in the price of crude oil,” the communique said.
Edo State PENGASSAN Chairman, Johnny Akpan, insisted that the deployment of Cobalt “to the country’s 21 crude oil export terminals amounts to mortgaging the nation’s economic heart beat.
“The NUPENG and the PENGASSAN, as responsible unions, cannot, therefore, fold their hands to see this essential sector of the nation’s economy ravaged at this point in our nation’s history.”
NUPENG Chairman (South South), Muazu Bulama, added that the scarcity of petroleum products is artificial, and “is of critical concern for us. There is a clique that does not want the country to move forward, we need to rise up strongly against this group.”
He challenged the government to provide all the facilities required by the DPR to ensure that products are not diverted.