THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has directed its members in export terminals and production platforms to shut down operations from yesterday in continuation of the strike to protest the last increase in fuel prices and sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.
Labour said all production platforms and export terminals in the Escravos flow stations operated by Chevron were shut down yesterday. It also alleged plan by the Federal Government to procure “a black market injunction” to abort the on-going strike, and asked the judiciary not to allow itself to be used against the popular will of the Nigerian people.
Meanwhile, 40 goods-laden ships are now stranded outside the Lagos ports on account of the on-going strike. The ships will pay $10,000 daily for each day the strike lasts.
PENGASSAN secretariat in a message to all branch chairmen in the upstream sector yesterday said: To all PENGASSAN branch chairmen in producing companies, please ensure that all export terminals and production platforms are shut down by 12 midnight today (yesterday) in compliance with the directive that the strike must be total.”
At a press conference in Lagos, after monitoring people’s compliance with the strike on the second day, Chairman of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Lagos State chapter, Comrade Abubakar Sulaimon, said organised labour and its allies were resolved to continue with the strike until government reduced the pump price of petrol to N65 per litre.
Comrade Sulaimon who is also the Lagos Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, said: “In the oil and gas sector, the strike is in two phases. Wednesday, all downstream operations were shut down. As we speak, there is no loading in any depot. From Mosimi, Ejigbo to all others. In the upstream, the shutting down has begun and within the next three days, it would be completed.
As we speak now, Escravos flow stations are already shut down. It is unfortunate that our leaders are making us go through this road, the road of hardship. Today, the five major producers in the upstream are producing about 2.2 million barrels of crude daily, while the minors are producing close to one million barrels. Together, the nation is producing over three million crude barrels per day.
Jun232007