Oil trouble for Nigeria
2005-01-26 10:33
Lagos - Nigeria's oil unions refused to retract a strike threat after talks with Labour Ministry officials, but said meetings aimed at averting the work stoppage in the world's seventh-largest crude exporter would continue on Wednesday.
Labour leaders at the meeting on Tuesday refused to speak to the representative of the Malaysian-owned firm at the centre of the dispute, sticking to a demand he must leave the country, said Bassey Harry, an official with the blue-collar NUPENG oil union.
"The strike will kick off if this meeting tomorrow is not fruitful," Harry said.
The unions initially said they would launch a regional strike on Monday in and around the southern Niger Delta oil hub of Port Harcourt after two executives from drilling firm WASCO ignored the unions' ultimatum demanding they leave the country.
The managers are blamed for cutting workers' benefits.
Africa's top oil exporter
Nigeria, an OPEC member, is Africa's top oil exporter and the fifth largest supplier of crude to the United States. The threatened strike risks cutting off over 500 000 barrels per day of the country's 2.5 million barrels per day output.
The strike call was delayed amid a series of last-minute negotiations.
The two executives concerned are WASCO Managing Director Mike Walker and his colleague Gordon McCullough, who works as a supervisor at the firm.
Walker attended Tuesday's meeting, but labour leaders refused to speak to him, demanding to hold talks with one of his superiors at a follow-up meeting on Wednesday morning.
WASCO plans to send British national Chris Bianca - the CEO of its immediate parent company, Oil Tools - to the talks, said Walker.
"I'm confident we'll be able to resolve the issue," Walker said.
WASCO has asked four of its eight expatriate staff - out of the country when the strike threat was issued - to hold off coming back until the labour crisis was resolved.
WASCO is registered in Nigeria, but its ultimate majority-owner is Malaysian firm SCOMI. It owns the firm via Oil Tools.
The strike would be extended nationwide if demands are still not met after three days, PENGASSAN has warned.
WASCO took more than 20 workers off regular contracts and employed them on an irregular basis last year, saying declining business forced it to make the cuts.
Protests and violence regularly dent Nigeria's oil production in the southern Niger delta, where an ethnic revolt cut off 40% of national output in March 2003. Crude production in the area is also hampered by the frequent theft of oil from pipelines. - AP
- SAPA