Staff of Chevron Nigeria, today, embarked on a strike action over a staff rationalisation exercise planned for August BusinessDay has learnt.
Sources say the local chapter of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) are aggrieved that the management of Chevron has not engaged them up to this point, and has raised concerns that the proposed lay-offs are a sharp departure from previous lay-offs, which have been voluntary.
BusinessDay contacted PENGASSAN but the union officials did not corroborate the claim. However, highly placed sources in the industry confirm the development. There are fears that if an agreement is not reached, a total shutdown of Chevron’s production is likely.
According to analysts at SBM Research, lead by Cheta Nwanze, the impacts of a shutdown of Chevron facilities will have two immediate impacts on Nigeria.
It will impact the Nigeria’s production figure which is billed to top 2million barrels per day in August. Chevron produces 500kbpd, the Agbami production facility alone does about 250kpbd.
SBM Research team also said if the national PENGASSAN association joined in solidarity as was seen in the Mobil incident, it could quickly affect gas supply to the Nigerian Gas Company, and have an impact on power.
“In the medium term, such a shutdown could hit the 2017 budget. Brent Crude is currently trading at $44.78. Nigeria’s 2017 budget is predicated on $44.50 and 2.2 mbpd. This strike action, and future reactions, need to be watched,” said SBM Intelligence.
