Chevron strike could slash Nigeria oil production by 350,000 Bpd

A strike of workers at the Nigerian unit of Chevron could threaten 350,000 bpd in oil production: Chevron’s share in the country’s total output. Nigerian media report that workers will be striking over unpaid dues and had yesterday blocked the headquarters of Chevron’s Nigerian subsidiary in Lagos, blocking access to it.

One Chevron Nigeria employee told reporters that only the senior executives of the company were allowed to enter the building “so that they could go in and take decision on the industrial crisis and not to perform any administrative duties.”

“In the coming days, production may be shut down if management does not act fast,” the employee also said.
Asked about the reason for the strike, the employee said “The union is demanding the yearly entitlements of the workers. The workers are entitled to certain allowances in every December and January but the management has refused to pay.”

Chevron is the third-largest oil producing company in Nigeria. It has 40-percent participation in eight onshore and shallow offshore fields as well as three operated and six non-operated deepwater blocks in the country.
Two months ago, Reuters reported that the supermajor was looking for buyers for several of its Nigerian projects, following the example of Shell and Exxon, which are also reducing their presence in Nigeria amid the militant activity escalation in recent years as well as political uncertainty.

This is not Chevron’s first problem with industrial action. Earlier this year, another union threatened to halt the company’s operations if it did not take back 500 people it had laid off as part of shrinking its business in Nigeria. The company was also accused, according to This Day, that it had plans to lay off as much as 70 percent of its local workforce.