FG begs Shell not to sack Nigerian workers

The federal government wants Shell and other international oil companies to rethink their plans of laying off many Nigerian workers, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has confirmed.

OPEC also said in its January-February report that the nation’s crude oil exports increased by 225,000 barrels per day in January 2016.

“The Nigerian labour ministry announced that minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, had met with the firms to ask them to shelve any plans for staff rationalization right now,” OPEC said.

“The move came after Shell, Nigeria’s largest jointventure operator, said it planned to cut some 10,000 staff and contractor positions across its global operations. There was no indication how many of these losses would come from the firm’s Nigerian activities.”

OPEC quoted a labour ministry spokesman as saying: “It is the government’s position that any job cuts particularly in the strategic oil sector will compound the social security problem the country is currently going through.”

Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive officer, admitted in a recent webcast that “the prevailing low oil prices were already affecting the company’s development plans in Nigeria”.

He added that the company “would maintain its strategy in Nigeria, which was to reduce its exposure to the most difficult parts of the petroleum sector”.

According to figures communicated directly by Nigeria to the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria, total crude oil production in January stood at 1.95 million barrel per day, making output 252,000 b/d higher than in December.

Nigeria, like other oil-producing countries, is facing challenging times following the decline in international crude oil prices, which has been heavily affecting national income.

Data from the OPEC secretariat shows that Nigeria’s bonny light sold for an average of $31.62 per barrel in January – the third most expensive crude in the OPEC basket, after Algeria and UAE’s crude.