Nigerian oil strike against Exxon to press onward

A Nigerian oil workers’ strike that has halted production at Exxon Mobil Corp.’s local unit entered its eighth day with talks between union leaders and management scheduled to resume at noon local time, a union official said.

The industrial action has cut crude output by 860,000 barrels a day, according to the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria union, also known as Pengassan. Gloria Essien-Danner, a spokeswoman for Irving-based Exxon, also confirmed today that the strike had not ended.


“As of yesterday we could not reach an agreement,” Olusola George-Olumoroti, Pengassan’s branch chairman, said in a telephone interview from Abuja today. “Until we reach a resolution we won’t go back to work.”

The strike, combined with a one-week series of militant attacks against crude pipelines operated by a Royal Dutch Shell Plc unit, has cut Nigerian oil output by about 50 percent, allowing Angola to overtake it as Africa’s biggest oil producer.

Houston Chronicle