The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is planning to withdraw all its members from every upstream operation unless Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company (SEEPCO), immediately addresses and fulfils all of the association’s demands related to their ongoing grievance.
The President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, issued the threat at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
The Union had last week picketed the firm’s headquarters over the company’s alleged anti-labour practices and abuse of the expatriate quota system, which led to discrimination against skilled Nigerian workers.
Speaking at the briefing, Osifo, emphasised that failure to meet the conditions of their agitation would lead to widespread disruption in the sector, as its members consist of 90 per cent of workers in the upstream segment, impacting critical activities in Nigeria’s oil industry.
Osifo said the government has the option of taking sides with the oil firm and risking losing monumental oil revenue or direct strict compliance with the extant laws.
He said, “So, if we have done all these and nothing is done, we will declare a national strike. And remember, in the upstream operation of the oil and gas industry, those that are carrying out the operations, over 90 per cent of them are our members.
“So, by the time we withdraw our members from the upstream, the entire upstream will be grounded.
“So, the government should choose between standing with Nigerians and enforcing Nigerian laws or standing with Indians or Sterling Oil.”
Oriental News Nigeria reports that the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) expressed delight that PENGASSAN served as a whistle blower over the alleged expatriate quota abuse by the management of Sterling Oil, and we assure the union and the general public that we would investigate the matter exhaustively and take necessary actions.” it said.
The NCDMB said it had sanctioned SEEPCO a few years ago for gross violations of the NOGICD Act and have been engaging the company for the same reasons.
Providing more interventions in the case of infractions by the firm, the Board recalled that in 2017, it identified five expatriates deployed by SEEPCO without obtaining the relevant NCDMB approvals.
As a result, NCDMB penalized the company for this non-compliant deployment of expatriates. To remediate this, SEEPCO trained five Nigerians in Marine Engineering and Subsurface Drilling Engineering for nine months.
Further in 2018, NCDMB identified 402 expatriates deployed by SEEPCO without approval and also discovered projects, contracts, and purchase orders from multiple projects that were awarded and executed without appropriate approvals.
In line with its duty, the NCDMB penalized SEEPCO for these infractions and directed SEEPCO and its affiliates to disengage the 402 expatriates and provide evidence of their disengagement and exit to the Board, as well as commence and comply with the NCDMB Expatriate Quota application process.
The firm was also instructed to comply with the Board’s requirements for tendering and awarding projects, contracts, and purchase orders and complete the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) reconciliation exercise and pay outstanding remittances.
In addition it was asked to submit up-to-date statutory reports on Nigerian Content and comply with the review process, train and employ 40 Nigerians as part of the remediation/penalty.
The Board, however regretted that SEEPCO ignored those directives until the it commenced legal proceedings against the firm, in line with section 68 of the NOGICD Act.
In 2020, SEEPCO sought an out-of-Court settlement and committed to addressing the compliance issues and undertaking the remediation and later completed the training of 40 Nigerians in 2022, but the employment commitment was not achieved.
Additionally, SEEPCO made only partial NCDF remittances and has refused to respond and comply with other Nigerian Content requirements.
In 2023, SEEPCO obtained Expatriate Quota approval from the Board for three positions, and from its records SEEPCO has been granted only seven expatiate positions between 2017 to 2023.
The Board has requested for statutory submissions from SEEPCo and scheduled performance review session for March 2025.
The NCDMB Expatriate Quota approvals and compliance and enforcement is applicable to only companies with investments or executing projects in the oil and gas industry. Non-oil and gas Expatriate Quota utilization does not come to the Board, but rather directly to the Ministry of Interior.
The Board said it is committed to the effective implementation and enforcement of the NOGICD Act in the oil and gas sector, with a view to creating employment opportunities for Nigerians, deepening Nigerian Content and boosting the economy.
The Board vowed to sanction firms that flagrantly flout provisions of the NOGICD Act, while it welcomed collaboration of stakeholders, including oil unions towards achieving the intendments of the NOGICD Act.