The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has directed its members to halt gas supply to Dangote Petroleum Refinery with immediate effect.
A letter signed by the General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, on Friday, the union accused the refinery management of disengaging unionised workers and embarking on a “mission of misinformation and propaganda” instead of engaging meaningfully with the union.
PENGASSAN instructed all its branch chairmen, particularly the NGIC branch, to ensure that gas supply to the refinery was cut off without delay.
The directive also included shutting all crude oil supply valves to the refinery and halting all loading operations for vessels headed there.
In the directive issued to its branch chairmen, PENGASSAN instructed its branch chairmen in key upstream and midstream oil companies, including TotalEnergies, Chevron, Seplat, Shell Nigeria Gas, Oando, and Nigerian Gas Infrastructure Company, to immediately cut off all crude oil and gas supplies to the refinery.
The union described the action as a necessary response to protect the constitutional rights of workers to unionise.
While PENGASSAN linked its latest directive to alleged victimisation of workers seeking to unionise, the Dangote Group had earlier dismissed reports of mass layoffs, saying only a small number of employees were affected, in efforts to safeguard refinery operations from sabotage.
The company said over 3,000 Nigerians remained employed at the refinery and maintained that workers are free to decide whether or not to join a union.
The refinery also condemned the plan by PENGASSAN to halt crude supply to the refinery, describing it as a “brazen, albeit shocking, display of lawlessness and criminality”
