Striking Nigerian white-collar oil workers have suspended their week-long strike after their labor union, Pengassan, struck an agreement with the government to address their demands, the union and state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said Wednesday.
Pengassan called the strike on July 7 to protest the government's failure to settle about $7 billion in cash call debts, which are the government's share of the funding of joint venture oil and gas projects with foreign companies, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and Eni.
The union also said it was protesting against the continued delay in the passage into law of the landmark Petroleum Industry Bill and massive job losses in the oil sector.
"Part of the agreement is that the government will put in place a new structure to quickly address the lapses that led to NNPC incurring the arrears on joint venture cash calls," Pengassan spokesman Emmanuel Ojugbana told S&P Global Platts.
Pengassan's 20,000 members deal with the paper work involved in oil exploration, production and exports operations. While the strike lasted, fuel supply and distribution across the country were disrupted, hitting oil production and exports.
Poor funding has caused Nigerian oil output to stagnate at around 2 million b/d over the years largely due to underinvestment in exploration.
