The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said it successfully protected the jobs of its members during the divestments by international oil companies (IOCs).

The union insisted that no member lost their job as a direct consequence of the transfer of oil and gas assets to new investors.

PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, said this during a media engagement.

He stated that the union had not only protected workers from job losses arising from the ownership changes but also ensured that their remuneration was maintained and improved.

He said the development represented one of the major achievements of the current leadership of the union, particularly against the background of the significant restructuring taking place in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

According to Osifo, the divestment wave involving major international operators had created concerns over the fate of workers as assets changed ownership and new investors took control of operations.

He, however, said PENGASSAN deliberately engaged the outgoing and incoming operators to ensure that workers were not treated as casualties of the industry’s restructuring.

He cited divestments involving ExxonMobil, Shell and Agip, among others, noting that the association had been able to protect its members through the various transactions.

“There was no single PENGASSAN member that lost his or her job as a result of that divestment,” Osifo said.

He said the union had learnt from previous experiences in the industry when changes in ownership and corporate restructuring sometimes resulted in disputes and job losses.

According to him, PENGASSAN’s approach under the current leadership was to engage rather than wait until disagreements escalated into industrial crises.

He said the objective was to ensure that the transition of assets did not translate into the displacement of Nigerian workers who had built their careers around the operations.

He described job protection and improved remuneration as two of the key measures by which the performance of the union’s current leadership should be assessed.

The PENGASSAN president said the changing ownership structure of Nigeria’s petroleum industry could ultimately become beneficial to workers if the transition attracted fresh investment, expanded operations and created new employment opportunities.

He said PENGASSAN’s role was therefore to ensure that workers remained central to the transition rather than allowing ownership changes to become a pathway to indiscriminate job cuts.

Osifo said the union’s approach to protecting jobs had also been demonstrated in its engagement with private operators, including the Dangote Refinery, where an earlier dispute had resulted in the disengagement of some workers.

He disclosed that following sustained engagement with the management, the affected workers were eventually recalled and had since returned to their duties.

According to him, about 600 workers who were initially disengaged were now back at work, contributing to the day-to-day operations of the refinery.

He said the development demonstrated PENGASSAN’s preference for dialogue and engagement in resolving industrial disputes, rather than allowing disagreements between workers and employers to result in permanent job losses.

Osifo maintained that the Dangote experience, alongside the union’s handling of the IOC divestments, demonstrated that job protection could be achieved through sustained engagement with employers even as ownership structures and business models in the petroleum industry continued to change.