Oil workers end strike, as fuel queues grow longer in FCT           

Nigerian oil and gas workers who downed tools on Wednesday and indefinitely shut operations in offices of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), including all its subsidiaries nationwide, over the Corporation’s unbundling into a new management structure have suspended the strike.

The minister on Tuesday announced the restructuring the NNPC into seven coordinating units, including an upstream company, a downstream company, a gas and power company, as well as another company in charge of refineries.

He also said about 20 venture companies would be created under the seven operational units, and chief executive officers would run all.

Sale Mohammed Abdullahi, group chairman of PENGASSAN at NNPC, and Udofia Odudu, group chairman of NUPENG at NNPC, in separate speeches, said the strike action Wednesday, over the unbundling of NNPC by Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum and group managing director of NNPC, had been suspended.

The striking workers said they were unhappy that Kachikwu showed total disregard to engagement rule with stakeholders, and did not carry them along, stressing further that the process for the so-called unbundling was shrouded in secrecy for a long period and remained questionable.

However, the decision to suspend the strike came after a prolonged meeting Wednesday night between the Kachikwu and the two workers’ unions, which proceeded into the morning hours of Thursday.

Abdullahi said Thursday that they resolved to immediately call off the strike after a lengthy meeting with the minister.

The PENGASSAN chairman noted that at the end of the meeting, the unions were able to reach some important agreements on pertinent issues with the minister, resolving that there was no reason to continue with the strike action.

Although he said other outstanding issues affecting the concerns of the workers were also addressed during the meeting, he did not elaborate on the details or timeline given for the issues to be resolved.

BusinessDay learnt that part of the agreement reached bordered on setting up a committee that would draw its membership from NNPC staff, the Corporation’s management and the workers’ unions, with the mandate to amicably resolve all issues behind the tensions and conflicts, particularly the labour issues.

It was also learnt that the minister consented to the unions’ demands involve them in all decisions concerning the restructuring of NNPC going forward.

This, however, has failed to end the long queues of motorists at petrol stations in and around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as panic buying lingers owing to fears that the striking oil workers might have created enough breach in product supply to warrant shortages.

As a result of the long queues and time wastage at petrol stations, which continue to sell at the official price of between N86 and N87 per litre, many motorists are being forced into the black market, where a 10-litre keg is now selling at between N2500 and N3000 or between N250 and N300 per litre.