Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is still grappling with the fallout of last week’s strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) warning that systemic vulnerabilities remain despite the suspension of the industrial action.
The strike, which began on September 28 and lasted three days, disrupted operations at critical facilities including Shell’s Bonga floating production unit, the Oben gas plant, and delayed cargo loadings at export terminals such as Akpo, Brass and Egina. It also forced deferments at Nigeria LNG, with ripple effects across the country’s energy supply chain.
Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari, in a letter to regulators, said the impact was immediate and wide-ranging.
“Within the first 24 hours of the strike, production deferments stood at approximately 283,000 barrels of oil per day, 1.7 billion standard cubic feet of gas, and over 1,200 megawatts of power generation impaction,” he wrote.
“This equates to around 16 per cent of national oil output, 30 per cent of marketed gas, and 20 per cent of electricity generation,” he added, warning that prolonged disruption would pose a “material threat to national energy security.”
Ojulari further disclosed that the stoppage had “impacts that extend beyond the Dangote Refinery,” noting that missed liftings, reduced gas sales and delayed projects had compounded “significant revenue losses” and created immediate cashflow pressures.
Although PENGASSAN called off its strike following government intervention, the union has insisted that its grievances remain unresolved.
At a press briefing in Abuja, the union’s president, Festus Osifo, clarified that no agreement was signed with the Dangote Refinery, which the workers accuse of unlawfully dismissing over 800 Nigerian staff and replacing them with foreign employees.
“If you see that communiqué, we did not sign it,” Osifo said. “Normally, it is supposed to be signed by three parties. We did not sign because we felt that some things in it were not okay with us.”
He described the document as a statement issued by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Dingyadi, who acted as conciliator, but stressed that the decision to suspend the strike was taken in good faith.
“What we prioritised was how our members would return to work and provide for their families,” he explained.
“The release that Dangote made on workers sabotaging the economy was totally incorrect. If we had allowed that sabotage tag to stand, those 800 people would not be able to secure jobs in the future. Clearing that was a very big win.”
Osifo warned that the dispute is far from over. “If Dangote does not do the needful, our tools are always available. We will never get tired of struggling for what is right. We have been around for 50 years before the Dangote Refinery came on stream,” he said.
For NNPCL, the strike has raised alarms about the fragility of Nigeria’s energy
