NCD violation: NCDMB’s been in running battle with Sterling Oil __Source
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Allegations against Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company (SEEPCO) Limited on violating numerous labour laws, operating regulations and the Nigerian Content Act in the petroleum industry continue to mass up with revelations that the independent producer retains a permanent position in the default register of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has in a vehement protest demanded the federal government to sanction the company run by Indians for gross violation and manipulation of expatriate quotas, overshooting its production permits, laying work programme basis for poor production accounting, compromising Nigerian authorities and running internal workplace discrimination against Nigerian employees.
PENGASSAN President, Comrade Festus Osifo, leads members on picketing exercise to SEEPCO’s offices in Lagos
PENGASSAN which has already hamstrung activities the operating locations of SEEPCO Limited demands the federal government to immediately deport the over 10,000 workers imported by SEEPCO Limited into its Nigerian operations and also impose stringent sanctions the company for violating Nigerian labour laws, manipulating the expatriate quota regulation and breaching the Nigerian Content Act in the petroleum industry.
The group which is led by Comrade Festus Osifo had picketed the Lagos offices of SEEPCO Limited in the week in simultaneous actions that also shut down the company’s operations in the Niger Delta. They demanded that the company must abide the collective bargaining agreement, right to unionism and plausible employment practices that govern labour practices in the industry.
The Oracle Today reports that the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010 stipulates that no company operating in the country would be allowed to bring in expatriates for jobs and roles in areas where local capacity exists. The law which is regulated by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is enforceable through either regulatory sanctions or by a court of law.
Comrade Osifo declared in Lagos that SEEPCO Limited has flouted the provisions of the Nigerian Content laws with contemptuous impunity. He denounced the NCDMB for inaction even after several petitions and appeals were made to draw its attention to gross violations of the NOGICD Act in the operations of SEEPCO Limited.
Comrade Osifo told journalists that the management of SEEPCO Limited has severally scorned the labour unions in Nigeria with boasts that it has leaders of government’s agencies in its pocket. He cited the PENGASSAN’s experience with former Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, who he accused of taking orders from foreign companies in the country to award discretionary expatriate quotas.
The Oracle Today could not reach Dr Ngige for comments over the allegations of complicity in the violation of expatriate quotas.
However, our enquiries at the NCDMB yielded confirmation that SEEPCO Limited has been serial violator of the Nigerian Content law and has been serially and severally fined for such violations.
Our source who is not authorized to speak for the agency also stated that SEEPCO Limited has written several letters of apology the NCDMB over its repeated defaults but has in practice remained undeterred by fines in breaking the law.
Eventhough Comrade Osifo had called out the former Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr Simbi Wabote, for inaction against SEEPCO Limited; our sources in the agency all stated that Engr Wabote was so distraught by the rascality of the independent producer to the extent that he planned initiating prosecution against it.
Our sources stated that the management of SEEPCO Limited had made frantic efforts to thwart plans of initiating the prosecution by flooding the agency with apology letters and promises to address all issues raised against the company.
Comrade Osifo reiterated that the company holds the Nigerian institutions in scorn and in contempt, accusing SEEPCO Limited of not only deceiving the NCDMB but also manipulating the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission by exceeding drilling permits which, according to him, could lead to deceitful production accounting.
PENGASSAN also said that officials of SEEPCO Limited was trying to compromise leaders of the union ahead of a scheduled meeting early next week, vowing that the labour leaders would not meet the Indian leaders of the company unless in a full stakeholders meeting where all regulators in the industry are present.
Comrade Osifo declared that PENGASSAN leaders would not be vulnerable to the pitfall of blackmail by anyone until all the demands on the table are met. He swore that protest which holds the potential to shut in some 80,000 barrels per day from SEEPCO Limited’s operations would be escalated to national industrial action if all its demands are not met during a scheduled meeting with industry regulators.
The Oracle Today reports that a national industrial action by the white collar PENGASSAN might attract sympathy strikes by blue jacket sister National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and possibly by the massive Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
Full scale industrial action could shut in over 70 percent of Nigeria’s current 1.8 million barrels of crude oil and condensate and ground domestic economic activities across the country.
