NPDC embarks on strike again

… amid dwindling oil output

Again, the Nigerian Petroleum Devel- opment Company (NPDC) has em- barked on a four-day warn- ing strike from Monday, amid dwindling crude oil output and at a time the government des- perately needs revenue to shore up the economy once again.

The strike is premised on the power tussle between the private companies and the NPDC on the unresolved crisis over the operatorship of the oil assets.

The oil unions, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PEN- GASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), met on Monday morning and decided to go on the strike immediately.

“What the unions are really seeking is a pay rise, but they are using the operatorship issue as blackmail,” said a reliable source from one of the independent oil companies who are in partnership with NPDC, adding that the action should be interpreted as an act of economic sabotage and a destabilisation for the new Buhari administration.

Earlier, some union members locked up some of the offices thereby deny- ing the staff entrance into their offices.

They also asked all consultants, contract staff and visitors to vacate, leaving only the staff in their offices, but they will not be working while in the offices.

Meanwhile, the five con- tentious assets divested by Shell Petroleum Develop- ment Company (SPDC), OMLs 26,30,34,40 and 42, where Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is the operator, are said to be operating at a loss, according to updated pro- duction data obtained by BusinessDay.

“The gross production of the five assets slipped from an average production output of 47,862 barrels of
oil per day (bpd) in 2014 to 40,841bpd in 2015. This comes to about 18,378bpd allocated to the private com- panies in partnership with NPDC, and this is derived from assets they purchased in total for circa $2.8 billion. It is obvious that all the com- panies are operating at a loss,” a top executive in one of the independents firms, who pleaded anonymity, told BusinessDay.

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM