Seplat Energy has resolved its issues with some community indigenes working as contractors’ personnel and normal operations have resumed, the indigenous company said in a release.
According to a statement, this was achieved through stakeholder engagements and collaboration with the government.
Seplat said that some community indigenes working as contractors’ personnel invaded Seplat facilities at Amukpe and Sapele West locations on Friday, May 19, 2023 at 0600 hours.
This invasion led to the disruption of production activities and subsequently forcing a brief halt to business activities, including a declaration of force majeure to affected customers.
“At Seplat Energy, our contractor personnel are encouraged to make their grievances known (if any) through their managing contractors or designated Seplat officials, or otherwise leverage established third-party mediation channels.
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“We are actively looking into why these individuals opted for a disruptive action without recourse to established procedures and with no concern or regard for public safety and national interest (our Seplat West facilities supply about 37 percent of the gas used for power generation in the country),”the statement said.
Seplat said its stakeholder engagement continues as it established through a meeting with the contractors’ personnel, security agencies and Okpe Host Communities Forum leaders, that the disruption was due to the individuals’ demands for salary increment and automatic conversion to regular staff.
“The contractors managing these individuals have been notified of their actions, and we understand that plans were underway to implement a salary increment for their personnel before the incident occurred.
“We must emphasise that during the invasion of our facilities, we ensured the safety and security of our staff which is always our primary priority. All of our production staff are safe, and no injury or harm was recorded,” the statement read.
Seplat Energy said it will continuously strive to ensure best practice in the management of personnel provided to the company by third party service providers, including regular engagements on their grievances. “These service providers will continue to engage their personnel and amicably address the concerns raised by them.
“We would like to appreciate the support from our community leaders and the government security agencies in working together with Seplat Energy to efficiently manage the situation, prevent any HSE incident and promptly restore normal operations.
