The Trade Union Congress (TUC) says it is ready to shut down all oil field locations in the country if the ongoing discussions with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) do not generate favorable results.
The President of TUC, Comrade Festus Usifo, made the threat on Channels Television on Wednesday.
On September 4, Oando PLC signed an agreement with ENI, a multinational energy firm based in Italy, regarding the full acquisition of shares of Nigeria’s AGIP Oil firm Limited.
Following the change in ownership, questions have been raised over what will happen to the Nigerian employees of Agip Company.
Usifo responded to the concerns voiced by saying that the Union believes that Agip Company should follow the law.
He claims that the TUC opposes transferring its members to Oando PLC without providing suitable growth plans for the employees who have worked for Agip Company for such a long time.
“What we are asking is that we need to be sure,” Usifo said. “Our members have worked with NAOC over the years; some have worked for over thirty years, and some are nearing retirement, and you are saying you want to transfer them over to a new firm.
“The point is: What are the obligations that Agip has incurred, including the pension and gratuities you are required to pay to these individuals? Do we have the resources at Oando to be able to meet our members’ financial obligations? That is the initial factor.
“As a patriotic organization, we’re also asking Oando: You’re buying this; what’s your development strategy? Our members will be sent home if that company fails since it is essential to their future.
“If we are not satisfied with the plans, we will say, pay us our obligations; we do not want to be transited into Oando, pay us our money.
“I have worked for you for 35 years; I have worked for you for thirty years; pay me my perseverance, and let’s discuss a special separation package so that I go.
“If I now want to join Oando it would be based on my discretion, anything I see I take, but the years I have put in Agip and NAOC settle me”.
The TUC President insists that Oando PLC cannot manage and sustain production like the International Oil Companies, IOCs, who inject finances into managing the assets.
“When the IOCs were managing most of these assets, they had the finances to inject into it, and we could have sustained production. That is the real challenge we would be having, and those are the discussions we are also fronting with Agip group.
“Part of operations like stimulation operations, they do not do well enhancement so we would have issues. Those wells will start declining”.
He said Agip must sit and have a conversation with the operators working in the oil field locations and ensure their demands are met.
“We have people who are working in the field locations, the operators working there; you cannot bring people who are dissatisfied to be running your assets it does not work like that.
“Who is going to run it? Is it the management of Oando that will just come there and start pressing the buttons? No, you need these employees. So, you must sit down and have a conversation with them.
“If they insist on not complying, they know the consequence, we will withdraw our members from the respective field locations. What we are doing now is conversation, consultation, and discussion with the Agip management”.
While this has been happening, members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Agip have organized a number of prayer meetings in NAOC offices and field locations around the states of Delta, Rivers, Imo, and Bayelsa.
The employees are utilizing the prayer meetings to ask God for help, as well as assistance from the Federal Government and other pertinent government bodies, to persuade NAOC to follow the law when it comes to including Nigerian employees in the sale of NAOC shares to Oando.
They prayed that the Nigerian labor laws would be strictly upheld to safeguard the workforce’s interests during the tumultuous transition and to ensure the safety of all their members, as the alleged sale of Eni’s assets to Oando has sparked a wave of doubt, fear, and hopelessness among the company’s devoted workforce.