LAGOS (AFP) — Nigeria's oil workers' unions are to hold talks on Tuesday with local senior officials of the US giant Chevron to avoid a strike that could paralyse production, a labour leader said.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) deputy secretary general Lumumba Okugbawa said the talks were aimed at addressing grievances raised by workers against the firm's top executive in the country, Fred Nelson.
The workers had earlier this month issued a strike notice when PENGASSAN offered to intervene by way of negotiations.
Okugbawa said they had received complaints from their members about Nelson.
"Based on these and other issues we felt, as a national body we should intervene and find an amicable solution. That is why we are fixing a meeting for tomorrow with the management of Chevron," he told AFP.
"I don't want to predict the outcome... we want to listen to both parties," he added. "We want to make sure we have cordial a relationship with that organisation."
Okugbawa said Nelson took over running the Chevron Nigerian upstream operations in 2006. "Grievances have been building up and now have reached a boiling point," he added.
Chevron Nigeria Ltd. (CNL) officials were not immediately available for comment.
As of March this year, the company employed more than 2,000 workers in Nigeria, of which 90 percent were Nigerians.
In Nigeria, Chevron operates and holds a 40 percent interest in 13 concessions covering 2.2 million acres (8,900 sq km), predominantly in the onshore and near-offshore regions of the restive Niger Delta.
Last year its total production from 32 fields averaged 353,000 barrels per day of crude oil, 14 million cubic feet of natural gas and 4,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), according to its website.
According to the International Energy Agency statistics, Nigeria produced average 2.13 million bpd in 2007, making it the 13th biggest producer in the world.
It was until recently Africa's largest producer before it was overtaken in April by Angola.
A strike could have a knock-on effect on already cripplingly high oil prices.
Production losses in Nigeria have contributed to the surge in oil prices over the last two years.
For the last two years, Nigeria has lost about a quarter of its daily production because of attacks on pipelines and terminals and the kidnapping of key staff, foreign and Nigerian.
Production is stuck at around two million barrels a day where Nigeria was aiming for four million by 2010.
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