Employees of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), on Monday embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike.
The aggrieved workers also shut down all commission offices across the country, mainly over a dispute with the management of the commission concerning foreign training.
THISDAY learnt that the industrial action, which commenced on Monday, led to a total shutdown of regulatory activities at NUPRC headquarters in Abuja and all field offices nationwide, effectively grounding administrative and operational functions of the upstream petroleum regulator.
But in a reaction by the NUPRC, the organisation confirmed the strike action by its staff, but said that although some administrative activities were impacted, oil and gas facilities were not affected.
Similarly, the upstream regulator stated that as of on Monday evening negotiations were still ongoing with the workers, with a view to resolving all the knotty issues.
“It is true that some administrative activities were affected on Monday due to industrial action taken by the unions. However, this has not in any way impacted activities in oil and gas facilities or production in general.
“The top management of the commission is meeting with the unions in order to put an end to the strike and ultimately restore normalcy,” a brief statement from the commission in Abuja stated.
It was further learnt that the strike followed the breakdown of negotiations between the union and management over the handling of staff training programmes, particularly the commission’s position that capacity-building should be conducted locally rather than through overseas training.
While management insisted that training programmes, particularly for factory acceptance tests for Positive Displacement (PD) meters should be domestically delivered within Nigeria to reduce cost and strengthen local institutional capacity, the workers reportedly rejected the commission’s stance.
A security source said that representatives of the parties were meeting at the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) as of on Monday where a resolution will likely be reached.
The federal government recently reviewed operations in the oil and gas sector, declaring that royalty payments, petroleum profit taxes and other statutory revenues previously collected and retained by the NUPRC will thenceforth be paid directly into the Federation Account.
Emmanuel Addeh
Follow us on:
