Nigerian newspapers · 15 July 2020
NNPC Fired 850 Workers, Many From Refineries—PENGASSAN
Nigerian news from AbokiFX Rate
According to an oil union on Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has fired 850 workers, many of them from refineries, amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
The workers are both skilled and unskilled contractors, including technicians who helped maintain Nigeria's oil refineries.
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This was disclosed to Reuters by Lumumba Okugbawa, general secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), on the phone.
The NNPC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Layoffs in Nigeria's oil sector are a tense issue, with frequent stand-offs between the NNPC and unions.
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Nigeria is dependent on crude sales to prop up its struggling economy, now at risk of its worst recession in four decades due to the coronavirus and the pandemic tanking global oil prices. Yet Nigeria's refineries are barely operational.
Almost all of the country's fuel supply is processed overseas at a high cost, despite Nigeria being Africa's largest crude producer.
In May, the NNPC said it had more than 6,600 staff.