SAN FRANCISCO, May 18, (THEWILL) – Employees of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), have been directed to shutdown indefinitely their locations and all oil production facilities nationwide in a bid to force the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and the federal government to reverse the transfer of operatorship of OMLs 42, 40 and 30.
The assets were previously operated by Shell.
The directive to shutdown the facilities was issued Monday by the executive councils of the Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
A petroleum industry source with knowledge of the development told THEWILL that all branch chairmen of the powerful unions have been directed to fully implement the directive starting from Wednesday, May 20, 2015.
The unions are aggrieved that the sale of the assets did not follow due process and would affect the fortunes of the NPDC and its workers.
Mr. Emeka Offor’s Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, a joint venture company of Eland Oil & Gas Plc, was awarded the operatorship of OML 40, while Mr. Ernest Ezedialu Obiejesi’s NECONDE is the operator of OML 42.
Our sources in the sector say three flow stations have already been shutdown in the creeks of the Niger Delta ahead of Wednesday’s total shutdown.
Nigeria is the largest producer of crude oil in Africa with an estimated daily production capacity of 2.2 million barrels per day.
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