26 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012
BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG
N
IGERIA Union of Petro leum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has petitioned the Presidency over the sack of 17 of its officials including the caretaker committee chairman, by Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC. The union wants the Presidency and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to call the management of SPDC to order to avoid industrial unrest in the already restive petroleum industry. It was gathered that the officials were sacked on October 22, in an exercise which SPDC management claimed was part of its divestment and outsourcing program for some departments. NUPENG and the management of SPDC have been at loggerhead for some times now following the union’s
NUPENG petitions Presidency over sack of 17 officials by SPDC …Wants management to be called to order suspension and subsequent expulsion of its former SPDC branch chairman over alleged anti-union activities. President of NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese, told Vanguard that the intervention of the presidency and the management of NNPC were critical to avoid unnecessary tension and industrial unrest which he said the nation could not afford the luxury of at this time. He lamented that in spite of a committee set up the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, to address the lingering dispute between labour and the management of SPDC, the company had gone ahead to vic-
timize the union’s officials. He said “ we are calling on the presidency and the NNPC to call the management of SPDC to order and recall our members in the interest of industrial peace. We are aware of the tension in the country that is why we do not want to take immediate action. We hope that the appropriate authorities and agencies will address the issue as soon as possible.” Earlier in its reaction to the sack, NUPENG demanded that its SPDC caretaker committee chairman, Comrade Enomate Kingsley, and 16 other Union members affected by the severance be immediately reinstated in the inter-
est of industrial peace and harmony. NUPENG in a statement by its Deputy president and Acting General Secretary, Comrade Comrade John Eddy Ossai and Isaac Aberare, recalled that it dissolved the executive committee of Shell Branch of NUPENG for antiunion activities and set up a care-taker committee to run the affairs of the union in the interim. According to the statement “the management of SPDC refused to recognize the caretaker committee and has since been planning to victimize the union officials. Since then, SPDC planned to outsource the fire department
where majority of the workers are based notwithstanding the union’s vehement opposition to the plan. To actualize their plan, the SPDC management transferred the former Chairman, Comrade Fidelis Okandeji expelled by the union for anti-union activities and his loyalists out of the department leaving members of the caretaker committee vulnerable while hiding under the guise of divestment and management business decision to severe the union officials.” “The NUPENG leadership was taken aback when on October, 22, 2012, the SPDC management carried their threat and distributed severance letters to the Union Officials including the Chairman of the caretaker Committee, Comrade Enomate Kingsley. NUPENG takes serious exception to it, as a case of victimization for Union activity and it is unacceptable and will be resisted by the union. It should also be stressed that contract workers in SPDC will also be affected in severance and yet the management has refused to enter negotiation on collective bargaining agreement with the union and that means contract workers who served ten years and above will go with nothing.”
Chevron hits more Oz gas
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Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Engr. Andrew Yakubu (2nd left) and President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe at the World Energy Forum in Durai.
Flood: SPDC donates $1 m to relief fund By YEMIE ADEOYE
T
HE Shell Petroleum De velopment Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) has donated the sum of one million dollars towards relief efforts in support of flood displaced persons in 24 states across the country. The cash donation is part of the Company’s collaboration and support programme to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, in conjunction with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, towards effective post flood disaster relief operC M Y K
ations in the country. The support will be enhanced by funds collected through an ongoing employee donation programme, in which the Company will match contributions by its staff. Mutiu Sunmonu, SPDC’s Managing Director and Country Chair for Shell Companies in Nigeria said: “We are deeply touched by the stories and images of the hardship the floods have brought upon our brothers and sisters in many parts of the country and our thoughts and prayers are with all affected persons at this most difficult time. I’m also happy
that our staff are voluntarily contributing to the employee donation programme we launched for the flood victims.” The planned support operations with the Red Cross will cover areas including relief management, camp coordination and management, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, healthcare (especially maternal and child health), emergency shelter, livelihood support and early recovery, family reunification, psychosocial support and risk reduction. These will form part of the immediate and medium term activities to be embarked upon in
order to ease the hardship suffered by the flood affected persons and manage their return to normal life. Commenting on the support from SPDC, Secretary-General of the Nigerian Red Cross, Bello Hamman Diram said: “The Nigerian Red Cross Society welcomes the response and cooperation from Shell to our plan of action for the 2012 floods operation. It will certainly go a long way towards helping us meet our obligations to affected persons, volunteers and our staff, as well as to respond quickly and adequately to this emergency. We enjoin other well meaning individuals and corporate bodies to do likewise.”
HEVRON has struck another gas column at the Greater Gorgon Area in the Carnarvon basin off Western Australia. The US supermajor made the latest find at its Satyr-4 exploration well after drilling to a total depth of 4579 metres, it said on Thursday. Chevron, which operates Block WA-374-P with a 50% share, found a net gas column of around 67 metres after drilling in a water depth of 1088 metres some 120 kilometres north-west of Barrow Island. The latest find follows others at Gorgon recently. The deep-water Satyr-2 well encountering around 39 metres of net gas pay in September and in January the Satyr-3 well in the Exmouth plateau area discovered about 74 metres of net pay. Chevron vice chairman George Kirkland said of the latest find: “This latest discovery is a further demonstration of how we are achieving superior success from a focused and high-impact exploration program in a key hydrocarbon basin.” Chevron is partnered in the block by supermajors Shell and ExxonMobil on 25% each.