Eni workers shut Nigerian terminal to protest NAOC sale

Oil workers in Nigeria have shut down the country's Brass crude export terminal in protest over plans by Italian firm Eni to sell its Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) subsidiary to local company Oando.

The shutdown of the terminal and other NAOC assets started on 5 September, oil and gas workers' union Pengassan told Argus. Workers are demanding the NAOC sale be put on hold until they have been properly consulted and terms for transfer of services have been agreed, the union said.

NAOC management only told workers about the sale on 4 September, the day the deal was made public, having denied plans for any such sale when worker representatives asked at a meeting in July, according to Pengassan. NAOC told Argus that it remains committed to the health and safety of its employees but it declined to comment on the workers' demands.

NAOC operates in Nigeria under a joint venture agreement with state-owned NNPC and Oando. It holds 20pc of the joint venture, NNPC has 60pc and Oando the remaining 20pc. Besides the Brass terminal, the joint venture operates four onshore oil blocks in the Niger delta, two onshore exploration leases, 12 flow stations, three gas processing plants and two power plants. NAOC also has a 5pc interest in the Shell-operated SPDC joint venture in Nigeria but this is not included in the sale.

The Brass terminal received 24,000 bl of crude on 4 September. Receipts averaged 27,000 b/d last month. The last tanker to load there, the Seavision, departed for Italy with a 349,000 bl cargo on 22 August.

Oando acquired its 20pc stake in the NAOC joint venture when it bought US firm ConocoPhillips' Nigerian business for $1.5bn in 2014. Buying NAOC from Eni will lift Oando's interest in the joint venture to 40pc and increase its reserves by 98pc. Oando, which started the process of delisting from the Nigerian and South African stock exchanges in March, said completion of the NAOC deal is pending ministerial consent and regulatory approvals.

By Adebiyi Olusolape