Abuja — INDORAMA, core investors in Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited (EPCL) has sacked 700 of the 1000 workforce of the company as part of plans for the final take-over.

In a swift reaction to the development, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated that in line with its promise to ensure that no staff of the Corporation or its subsidiaries is disadvantaged as a result of the on-going privatization exercise, the affected workers will be re-absorbed by the NNPC.

Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Funsho Kupolokun who spoke yesterday at the combined closing ceremony of the 38th and 39th Classes of the Chief Officers' Management development programme held in Abuja, told the gathering that when the NNPC feels the need to right size its workforce, it will do so across board.

According to him " we have said that nobody in NNPC will be disadvantaged because of the privatization. We believe in privatization, we support it and we must implement it as painless as possible. The fact that you are at Eleme does not mean you should be affected, when NNPC wants to right-size, it will be across board. We did it in 2003 and 2004, and is prepared to do it if and when necessary.

He also stated that though the Kaduna and Warri Refineries are down, that at PortHarcourt is working at its highest in the recent time, which is about 90 per cent, giving the NNPC the problem of how to evacuate products because it has not dealt with such high production level for some time.

Kupolokun said that the problem of product scarcity does not arise as all the depot in the country have products, and the NNPC is comitted to maintaining such trend and surpassing it for the good of the country.

Reacting to the issue of who is owing who in oil revenue, the NNPC boss stated that "on the issue of who is owing who, based on the workings of the Modulation Mechanism, the concerned stakeholders know who is owing who. The Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is aware of it, and the NNPC knows what it is talking about"

The NNPC boss also pointed out that out of the six Floating Mega Stations under construction in the country, one will be commissioned next month, while further construction of five Mega Stations has commenced at Ibadan, Benin, Gombe, Jos and Katsina under the NNPC Phase 4 retail Development Programme.

Speaking earlier, the Group General Manager, Human Resources of NNPC, Jonas Odocha told the NNPC boss that the new owners of EPCL has made it known that they will be working with only 296 staff of the companyout of the about 1000 staff.

Odocha explained to the gathering that while the NNPC will look into the case of the affected workers, the 296 accepted by Indorama are on Secondary secondment for a period of three months after which they will decide to either continue to work with Indorama or move back to the NNPC.

" Before the 296 workers make up their mind within these three months, they will still be entitled to the whole benefits of a worker in NNPC. If after this time they make up their mind, then the corporation will take the final decision' he noted.