Plans to restart a section of Nigeria's 125,000 b/d Warri refinery are at risk due to an indefinite strike planned by plant support staff starting on 5 May. The strike is in protest against casualisation, low pay and lack of benefits.
A source at the refinery told Argus last week that state-owned NNPC intends to restart the crude and vacuum distillation units (CDU and VDU) and a gas plant in the first week of May. But the support staff have timed their strike to disrupt these plans.
Support staff representative Dafe Ighomitedo said the striking workers make up two-thirds of Warri's staff and have been protesting their employment terms since 2015.
The refinery has been undergoing a $492mn quick-fix repair contract with South Korean engineering firm Daewoo since June 2022 to restore 60pc of its nameplate capacity. A previous strike called in April 2022 would have delayed the start of the quick-fix programme, but it was called off following appeals from community leaders and a promise from refinery management to address the workers' demands if they supported the programme, Ighomitedo said.
Workers were promised an improved salary structure upon the refinery's restart but that promise has not been fulfilled, he added. NNPC did not respond to Argus' requests for comment.
NNPC restarted Warri in December last year and crude runs had ramped up to about 78,000 b/d before the refinery was shut again in January "to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations", the company said.
NNPC cancelled crude oil allocations to Warri in February and March, reoffering the volumes for export, but said last month that all units at the refinery would be online within a year.
