Nigeria loses N149bn to NLC strike
Ilenre Irele
Reports indicate that the country may have lost about N148.8bn in oil revenue on Monday following the one- day industrial action by the Organised Labour to kick against the N60,000 minimum wage proposal of the Federal Government.
Nigeria produces 1,281,478 barrels of crude oil daily (excluding condensates), according to the most recent data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, was traded at $78.27 per barrel on Monday. The official Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rate of the United States dollar on Monday was N1,483.5.
Oil workers under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and their counterpart in the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers had repeatedly declared their resolve to shut down oil installations nationwide during the strike.
On Sunday, PENGASSAN specifically directed its zonal, branch and chapter executive councils to block the entrances of all upstream oil installations nationwide beginning from Monday.
Sources in the industry confirmed that this was implemented in many stations on Monday, leading to the disruption of oil production at the affected stations.
“Of course, there was significant compliance by members across many stations today and this is to send a message to the government,” an official of the union, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, stated.
Based on this disruption to crude oil production, when the daily production volume is calculated against the cost of Brent on Monday and the official exchange rate, it implies that Nigeria may have lost about N148.8bn in just one day due to the strike.
It was earlier reported that PENGASSAN had directed its enforcement teams to block the entrances of all upstream oil installations nationwide beginning from Monday.
It gave the directive in a notice titled, “Special Announcement from the National Desk of PENGASSAN,” to all the oil union’s zonal, branch, and central executive councils.
In one of the directives obtained by our correspondent, which was signed by the Public Relations Officer, Lagos Zone, PENGASSAN, Juliana Adenike, the association explained that the order was in line with the strike declared by the Organised Labour.
