Crisis is currently brewing over the divestment of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited’s (SPDC) onshore assets as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has vowed to resist the sale without due negotiations with the union on the fate of the workers.
The union in a statement jointly signed by the President, Festus Osifo and General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa warned that it would not allow the proposed sale to The Renaissance Group to sail through should the workers be sidelined in the deal. “Any attempt to transfer the assets without resolving issues affecting our members will be met with the stiffest resistance the industry has ever witnessed,” the union vowed.
It added that though the Shell management communicated information on the planned sale to its PENGASSAN branch, but its findings on the group vying for the company gave cause for concerns.
“Having appraised the situation, reviewed the presentation and carried out preliminary findings, we wish to state as follows:
“The group is unknown to us and thus it’s an assemblage of unknown entities with no proven track record in managing such diverse assets.
“We reject without equivocation all the terms affecting employees that were communicated in the presentation to our members.”
According to PENGASSAN’s leadership, “One of the companies that made up the assemblage has a history of subjugating workers and subjecting them to untold hardship as exemplified in the current management of OML 34.”
The union added that another company in the group has a penchant for preventing workers from unionising and thus stiffening their condition of services.
It emphasised that the group must come clean with its intention(s) and be ready to have serious engagement with the Association and not the jamboree that Shell Management is currently engaging in.
“We have communicated to our Shell/SNBO branches not to be distracted but to focus on the CBA negotiation that is due about a week from now,” it added.
The union also charged “The industry regulator, JV Asset partners (NNPCL, Non-Operated Asset Partners) and other stakeholders are hereby put on notice.”
Companies making up the consortium are; ND Western Limited, Aradel Holdings, The Petrolin Group, FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited and the Waltersmith Group.