Nigeria Tries to Contain Oil Worker Strike

www.kansas.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 17, 2003 DULUE MBACHU Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria started sending replacement workers to its oil-export terminals Monday, trying to stave off a shutdown of crude exports in a strike by a powerful oil workers union.

The 2-day-old strike over pay and working conditions comes as the threat of war against Iraq and a prolonged strike in Venezuela have pushed oil prices near two-year highs.

Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of crude oil and half of its exports go to the United States. Oil exports account for more than 80 percent of government revenue.

The Department of Petroleum Resources said Monday that managers would fill in for striking workers and vowed that the oil would continue to flow.

"We have sent out management staff to the various terminals, depots and jetties to handle the jobs left by the strikers. There'll be no disruption of services as far as the management is concerned," said Belema Osibodu, an agency spokeswoman.

The strike was launched Saturday by union employees of the Department of Petroleum Resources, a key government unit overseeing operations of oil multinationals including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and TotalFinaElf. It is backed by the country's leading Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.

Strikers are demanding more than a year's worth of back pay, including unpaid overtime, expenses and travel allowances. They also want greater autonomy and better financing for the department, which they say is crippled by inefficient bureaucracy.

Officials of Shell and TotalFinaElf in Nigeria said the action hadn't yet affected exports. Shell pumps nearly half of the country's exports.

In London, benchmark Brent crude fell 52 cents Monday, hitting $31.98, after last week's two-year highs. U.S. markets were closed for Presidents' Day.

In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, long lines of cars waiting for fuel formed at gas stations as the strike started to hit domestic fuel distribution. Fuel shortages also were reported in the capital, Abuja, and many other urban centers.

Nigeria produces over 2 million barrels of oil a day, more than 95 percent of which is pumped by joint ventures between the government and major oil companies.