Inside Details Of Why Protesters Shut Down Gen TY Danjuma’s Oil Firm, Sapetro

Yesterday, Monday September 14 2015, protesters shut down operations at South Atlantic Petroleum owned by wealthy Nigerian, Retired General Theophilus Danjuma.

The development caused a bit of stir as result of disruption of vehicular movements and showdown with law enforcers that nearly turned ugly.

The full details of what went down are produced as sourced

South Atlantic Petroleun (SAPETRO), an indigenous oil and gas company owned by billionaire, Retired General Theophilus Danjuma was yesterday locked up by officers and men of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) following the sack of tenGen TY Danjuma

workers, which the unionist say did not follow due process
.
The PENGASSAN men took their grievances to the huge SAPETRO building in Victoria Island disrupting commercial activities in the building that houses other offices including Air France and some residential apartments too.

The picketing exercise which caused a stir in the area witnessed a showdown between the workers, police and some army men-but luckily it did not degenerate into fisticuff because the gate into the building was chained.
The Chairman, PENGASSAN, Lagos Zone, Mr. Abel Agarin, said members of the union decided to protest as result of the company’s refusal to renegotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the workers
He said that there are only two ways for laying off staff, redundancy or severance, and they have not been informed of the reasons. He said redundancy cannot be the reason for the sacking because the oil and gas industry is not facing any pressures and still booming.
The Chairman, PENGASSAN, SAPETRO branch, Mr. Emmanuel Onuorah, in his statement stated that the workers were not told they were employed for a project but were hired as regular workers and seconded to work on the project to completion.

He said, “The restructuring exercise going on at SAPETRO, being done by PwC, was a different thing entirely from the project. It was when the project failed and the management decided in June this year to call it quits that they now mixed the two together. The restructuring was even supposed to increase our staff strength from 71 to 100.

“We drilled three wells – CSW-1, CS 4 and CS 5. When we started drilling, the reserves dropped from eight million barrels to five million barrels.”

Onuorah said oil of about 2,500 barrels per day was found in one of the wells, but it was very viscous.
“So, to flow it from the platform to onshore became difficult. Because of that, the company felt it did not have funds again and the project was suspended,” he added.

The workers were reportedly laid off after the project was abandoned, but PENGASSAN says it is wrong.

There was a discussion at the SAPETRO Headquarters and the Acting Managing Director, SAPETRO, Mr. Dan Oguche, while conveying the management’s response to the protest in a letter to the union, said, “Please refer to the meeting held between SAPETRO management and PENGASSAN today, September 14, 2015 and be advised as follows: SAPETRO will recall the 10 staff disengaged on August 31, 2015. Another meeting has been scheduled for Friday, September 18th.

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