PENGASSAN: No Record of Job Losses, Cut in Remuneration by Divesting IOCs

•Rates NUPRC high for conducting transparent oil bid rounds

Peter Uzoho

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday confirmed that the divestment of onshore assets by four International Oil Companies (IOCs) did not lead to job losses or reduced remuneration.

The international oil companies which recently offloaded their onshore oil assets, including their human resources to Nigerian companies include TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Eni and Equinor.

President of PENGASSAN, Mr. Festus Osifo, stated in Lagos at the public session of the association’s National Executive Council meeting, that the achievement was in line with their earlier strategies to secure their members’ jobs and welfare in the course of the divestment.

In multi-billion dollar oil and gas assets divestment transactions that were concluded last year with their final approval by the Nigerian government, Italian oil giant, Eni sold its Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to Oando Plc while ExxonMobil sold its Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) to Seplat Energy.

Moreover, French oil major, TotalEnergies divested its onshore assets to Chappal; Norwegian energy company, Equinor divested to Project Odinrin, while Shell sold its Nigerian onshore business, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, a consortium of five oil firms .

According to Osifo, former employees of TotalEnergies, Eni, ExxonMobil and Equinor in the divested assets have all transited to their new employers without any job security or remuneration concerns.

He explained: “So, on the divestment, for us, as PENGASSAN, and we wish to also announce to you, as we stated in Abuja in December, that we came up with strategies to ensure that none of our members will lose their job as a result of divestment.

“And we will announce to you that by the grace of God, today, there is none of our members that has lost his or her job because of divestment. The job has been 100 per cent guaranteed.

“We have transited from Nigeria Agip Oil  Company to Oando Energy Resources Limited with zero loss to membership. We have transited from Equinor to Chappal, with zero loss of membership. We just transited from Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to Seplat Energy Producing Nigeria Unlimited, with zero loss to membership.

“And beyond zero loss to membership, the condition of service was 100 per cent protected. So, there is none of our members today that is earning less than what they were earning before now as a result of divestment. So, it is an achievement that we are extremely proud of”

He expressed confidence that no job will be lost upon transition of employees from SPDC to Renaissance as the association was going to deepen the conversation with both companies.

Osifo assured that no member against his own volition will lose his or her job and that the remuneration will even be enhanced.

Also, responding to THISDAY’s question on the integrity of the oil bid rounds concluded in 2024 by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the PENGASSAN president rated the commission high, describing the exercise as one of the most transparent in the history of the country’s oil and gas exploration and production.

He said PENGASSAN followed and monitored the process to ensure that the process was transparent and conducted in line with best international practice.

He said the association’s interest was to ensure that only competent companies that have commercial and technical wherewithal win the assets, develop them and bring them to production.

“We commend the management of NUPRC for bringing about one of the most transparent bid rounds that we have ever seen in this country. Because the commercial bid was done to the public glare and at the end, we strongly believe that those that won the bid were qualified and competent.

“We saw some IOCs winning the bid. We know very well that they have the right competence and technical know-how to be able to develop that field.”

With Nigeria boasting of over 37 billion barrels of oil from the reserves on the ground but producing less than 2 million barrels per day, Osifo stressed the need to redouble efforts to increase the nation’s production.

“So what we are advocating is that as a country, we must expand our production base. We have the capacity as a country to be doing nothing less than 4 million barrels of crude production per day.

“And that is the direction that the government must think towards. That is the direction that we must continuously find ways to achieve. Because it will not just give us more revenue, it is also going to create a lot of jobs. It is going to increase our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a country,” he added.