The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on the Federal Government to launch a probe into the sudden closure of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, just months after they were reportedly revived.
Speaking at a joint briefing with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) during the International Labour Conference in Geneva, PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, questioned the rationale behind shutting down facilities that had only recently resumed operations.
Osifo also pushed back against widespread claims that refinery workers were idle and receiving full salaries without contributing. He explained that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has 12 Strategic Business Units (SBUs), and workers from inactive refineries are often redeployed within these units.
“Is it the fault of the workers that the refineries are not working?” Osifo asked. “It is the employer’s responsibility to provide the tools. The workers remain on duty, often under ‘minimum manning’, and are reassigned to other SBUs.”
As a trained petroleum engineer, Osifo noted that regular maintenance by engineers was the key reason the refineries remained repairable despite long periods of inactivity. He emphasized that maintaining idle infrastructure is a critical engineering principle and does not equate to worker redundancy.
He added that PENGASSAN has not been briefed on why the refineries were abruptly shut down, and called for transparency and accountability from those overseeing the assets.
On the issue of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an alternative fuel, Osifo expressed concern about the lack of infrastructure to support the CNG rollout, warning that the promising initiative could be stalled if distribution systems are not urgently improved.
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