Nigeria, Striking Oil Workers Open Talks

www.theledger.com By DULUE MBACHU Associated Press Writer LAGOS, Nigeria Nigerian officials and leaders of two powerful oil unions opened talks Wednesday on a five-day-old strike threatening crude exports. Delegates reported progress on union demands after the first of two scheduled meetings. Workers were awaiting the outcome of a second meeting before deciding whether to end the strike, said Belema Osibodu, a spokeswoman with Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources. More than 800 white-collar workers of the department, which monitors oil loading at export terminals run by multinationals including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf, walked off the job Saturday. They were joined Tuesday by about 600 blue-collar colleagues. The strike further roiled the global oil market at a time when possible war in Iraq and a prolonged strike in Venezuela have pushed prices to two-year highs. Nigeria is the world's six-largest exporter of crude, with half of its output going to the United States. Oil companies said the strike had not yet affected loading at their export terminals. The government has sent in replacement workers. The strikers are demanding more than a year in some unpaid wages - 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. Osibodu said the first meeting, between leaders of the Department of Petroleum Resources and the unions, resolved the pay issues. The second round of talks concerned demands for autonomy, she said. Nigeria produces more than 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.