No fewer than 4,000 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation workers may lose their jobs before the end of March.
A source in the NNPC in Abuja said the imminent sack was part of the last lap of the implementation of the restructuring begun by the corporation in 2003.
The source said that the purge also formed a part of the recommendations of a Lagos-based consulting firm to the NNPC.
The final report of the company is to be submitted to the NNPC management any moment from now.
The company is handling the corporation�s reform programme, which is titled Project PACE.
The source told our correspondent that the target of the NNPC was to bring its staff strength to 5,000.
The NNPC has reduced its staff strength from 17,000 to 9,000 in the last three years under the reform which is aimed at making it efficient.
The most recent was the retirement of over 1,838 staff last December for which approval was obtained from the Presidency.
The Group General Manager, Public Affairs, NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, had explained that those affected in the last exercise received attractive severance package.
It was learnt that most of those to be affected by the impending sack would come from the refineries and other subsidiaries that had been slated for privatisation.
They include the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company; the Kaduna Refineries and Petrochemicals; the Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals; the Nigerian Gas Company; the National Engineering Technical Company; and the Integrated Data Services Limited.
Some workers at facilities belonging to the Pipeline Product Marketing Company will also be affected.
The source, who preferred anonymity said the management was striving to meet the target contained in the presidential mandate on what the corporation must deliver to the nation before May 29, 2007.
According to him, one of the key aspects of the consultant�s task is to identify areas where work force should be reduced and where the injection of new talents and professionals are to be carried out.
However, when our correspondent called Ajuonuma on the phone on Tuesday, he denied knowledge of the impending purge.