Fuel scarcity continues as oil workers shun FG meeting - Oil workers insists on meeting with President

The ongoing fuel scarcity in the country may continue as the meeting called at the instance of the supervising minister of labour and productivity, Kabiru Turaki, to broker peace and resolve the industrial action by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has been rescheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2014.

The development followed the inability of the aggrieved oil workers’ unions and their officials to turn up for the meeting earlier scheduled for Tuesday, December 16, at the minister’s office.
However, Kabiru Turaki was absent at the meeting, officials from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, top directors at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, including the permanent secretary, Clement Iloh, were all present.
After several hours of waiting for NUPENG and PENGASSAN executives to turn up for the meeting, the permanent secretary then publicly announced the postponement of the meeting to Thursday.
He said, “This meeting was called by this ministry to trash out the issues that must have necessitated this current strike and other problems in the sector. However, this meeting has been postponed to Thursday, December 18 by 11am. We sincerely apologise for this postponement”.
As the strike enters the third day, both unions have hinged the latest strike on federal government’s inconsistent policy in carrying out turnaround maintenance of the nation’s ailing refineries, including effecting reduction in pump prices of petrol in line with the slump in global prices of crude oil.
They also accused the government of not being able to evolve new strategies to combat issues related with pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, and the delay by the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Others are the non-implementation of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, expected to reflect Nigerians in management positions and expatriate quota law.
Despite federal government’s self-rating of having accomplished so much in road construction, NUPENG and PENGASSAN have expressed sadness at the appalling state of access roads to refineries and oil depots’ facilities, as well as insecurity all over the country that has reportedly led to the death of their members.
NUPENG president, Igwe Achese, however, told reporters that the union shunned the meeting because “it will lead to nothing at the end of the whole exercise.”
Inside sources told our reporter that the oil workers would only attend a meeting which President Goodluck Jonathan will preside.
According to Achese, government has a penchant for organising meetings when industrial issues have gone from bad to worse but has never shown consistency in implementing resolutions that emanate from such meetings.
He said there has been series of meetings between the oil unions and the minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, to resolve these issues but such meetings failed to yield any tangible results.
He chided government for abandoning the Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) policy of the refineries, adding that their major grouse was poor supply of crude oil to service the refineries while several oil vessels with fuel products are at the seaport waiting to be discharged for sale in Nigeria.
“We cannot be party to a meeting that will ultimately lead to nothing at the end of the day. What we want to see is a situation where government makes commitment by implementing some of these demands we have raised, not series of meetings.
“It will surprise you to know that in the past eight months, we have been meeting with the minister of petroleum resources and other stakeholders in the petroleum industry, yet these meetings yielded nothing.
“You heard the ministry of petroleum resources bragging that there are over 17 oil vessels at the seaport waiting to discharge fuel, how do you explain the turnaround maintenance initiated by the government itself.
“We want to see regular supply of crude oil to the refineries so as to stop the importation of fuel from other countries which do not even have oil deposits in their soil. What is government doing about the turnaround maintenance it initiated and the Petroleum Industry Bill before the National Assembly?” he queried.