Nigeria Oil Production Shutdown: PENGASSAN Directs Red Alert

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has directed all oil production platforms to be on red alert in preparation for total production shutdown.

In a statement issued in the past hour, the PANGASSAN President, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, said this was in response to the callousness of the federal government, in allowing matters to deteriorate so far that the current paralysis in the country has entered the third day.

“We believe that a Government that is alive to its responsibilities will not allow this strike to degenerate thus far,” he said, noting that as an affiliate of the Trade Union Congress, and fully in support of the current action as directed by the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress, no report is currently being generated from production locations to both DPR and FGN, one of the very first steps in a shut down process.

Pointing out that the fuel subsidy question is only the tip of the iceberg amidst a plethora of issues needing urgent redress, PENGASSAN reiterated that before the removal of the fuel subsidy, the following conditions must be met:

•Fixing of the four refineries and building new ones;

•Regular power supply;

•Provision of social infrastructures such as rail system and roads ; and

•The elimination of corruption associated with supply and distribution of petroleum products in the downstream sector of the oil industry.

It would be recalled that on December 23, one week before the federal government arbitrarily wiped away the oil subsidy, PENGASSAN urged the same government to investigate companies and other operators in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in view of the massive fraud uncovered in the report of the international accounting and auditing firm, KPMG.