PENGASSAN to dialogue with FG tomorrow

• Knocks Govt Over Oil Sector Handling
• ‘We’re Fighting For $7bn Cash Calls Debt, Not Pay Rise’

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), yesterday, said its ongoing strike would continue indefinitely, unless the Federal Government takes urgent steps to revive the nation’s collapsing oil sector.

There are, however, expectations that a meeting between the union and the Federal Government, scheduled for tomorrow, would yield positive results. The association held a meeting, yesterday, with a view to articulating its position at Monday’s meeting. Its National Executive Council will also meet on Tuesday in Abuja, to deliberate on the outcome of Monday’s parley.

The union said government must be serious with issues, this time, alleging that previous meetings have been treated with levity. Chairman of PENGASSAN, Lagos branch, Abel Agarin, told The Guardian, yesterday, that the association’s struggle is not about salary increment, but the need for government to settle its $7bn cash calls debts.

Agarin lamented that in recent times, non-payment of cash calls has affect development of new projects and forced oil multinationals to divest from their area of investments, and also led to the sack of many members.

The Guardian gathered that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) cash calls debt to multinational and indigenous oil firms under the Joint Venture (JV) agreement has reached about $7bn.

Cash calls is the counterpart funding the NNPC pays yearly for the 60 per cent equity shareholding it owns in various oil and gas fields operated by International Oil Companies (IOCs) and indigenous oil firms (Independents).

Agarin said: “As far as we are concerned, there is no talk ongoing. I don’t know why the Federal Government said they are talking with us. We only have a proposed meeting for Monday. So, the strike is still very much ongoing.

“We are not talking about salaries. All we are saying is that the Federal Government should live up to its responsibilities on the cash calls. The increasing debt on the cash calls is our problem, because this funding has not been forthcoming for the past five to six years running.

“The non-payment of the cash calls is affecting the industry seriously, to the extent that our members are loosing jobs. The IOCs and the service sector are not undertaking new investments. No investment in new projects, as we speak, and the existing ones are being divested. So, our people are loosing jobs. As at today, Transocean is no longer in this country. Saipem has moved out because there is nothing going on.”

Agarin also bemoaned the delay in passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). “This is supposed to aid the industry, but it has been laid to rest; nobody is talking about it. We are not clamouring for salary increase. There has been no increment of salary in the oil sector in the last three years. We are just there, and even now companies are making moves to reduce our salaries. Where is that done? The economy is not friendly.

“If we fail to do this, now, the nation will end up having nothing, just like cocoa ended up, groundnut pyramids in the North, rubber and timber in Mid-West ended up. So, we cannot fold our hands. This is the only industry in the country, today, where we earn our revenue.

“As far as we are concerned, petroleum resources are still the mainstay of this economy. We might be talking about diversification. There is no gainsaying the fact that much of our national earning still comes from oil and gas, and we must not allow that to collapse suddenly.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has called on PENGASSAN to call off its industrial action in the interest of the nation.
He said: “Strike neither solves industrial disputes nor contributes to industrial growth. Our economy is already reeling from severe haemorrhage occasioned by decade long mismanagement. Further action, which stunts the efforts currently being made to reverse the trend, should therefore be shunned. This will only compound the vandalisation in the Niger Delta, occasioning low output and export in our OPEC quota, apart from the unwarranted hardship on the populace.”