Strike fails to hurt oil in Nigeria

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LAGOS - A threatened strike by Nigerian white-collar oil workers appeared to pose little threat to production or exports, amid conflicting claims over whether it had even begun.

The west African nation is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, and the strike warning had added to the fears of an industry already beset by political crises in Venezuela and the Middle East.

The PENGASSAN oil workers' union last week warned that strike action over pay by staff who supervise the loading of petroleum products at oil terminals could have a "biting effect" on exports.

On Monday, spokesmen for oil giants Shell and Mobil and the Nigerian national oil company (NNPC) tsaid that all operations were unaffected.

Emmanuel Agabir, spokesman for the oil ministry, said: "They're not going on strike as at the moment. I think they're going to hold some discussions."

But the secretary general of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Kenneth Narebor, said some workers at the oil companies' administrative headquarters had walked out on strike.

"From the reports I have now, it's started," Narebor said.

PENGASSAN called strike action for workers from Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources, who claim that they have still to be paid allowances for 2002 and had received December's salary a month late.

The workers oversee the various joint ventures between the NNPC and the oil multinationals which exploit Nigeria's rich fields, and was not clear whether they could significantly disrupt production.

Agabir said that he thought a strike would have little effect, in spite of the warnings from the union.

International oil prices are already at around their highest level in two years amid fears that a US-led attack on Iraq could disuript Middle East production and as strikes disrupt Venezuelan exports.   AFP