Daily Independent (Lagos)
Adeola Yusuf
6 July 2009
Lagos — Nigeria is losing over N120 million man-hour on daily basis as about 12, 000 oil workers, who fled various oil platforms in the crisis riven Niger Delta region for safety are yet to return to the field.
Investigation by Daily Independent showed that the high revenue earners, majority of who are field engineers, contractors and consultants were either evacuated by their companies from the sites or fled on their own to avert danger.
Asides oil workers, who were rendered "inactive on work" by the security in the Niger Delta region, Daily Independent also gathered that about 3, 000 workers in the four ailing refineries of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are redundant as s result of the temporary shut down of the refineries due to obsolete equipment or for Turn Around Maintenance (TAM).
The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) is ailing, while the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) is shut for TAM.
The same fate has befallen the two refineries in Warri, and this has impacted on the refineries' 445, 000 barrels per day refining capacity.
About 2, 500 Shell's workers have left oil platforms in the Western Delta operations sites of the company since the escalation of crisis in the region. Shell alone has suffered about seven attacks on it installations.
Over 700 oil workers, it would be recalled, fled crude platforms in the Niger Delta for fear threats "on their dear lives" on Wednesday, June 17.
Chevron alone evacuated about 350 staff and contractors in an early morning airlift from Escravos to Ozubi in Warri and other parts of the region, following repeated attacks on its facilities.
Italian oil firm, Agip has about 250 staff on its EA platforms. All of them have been rendered unused after the militants sabotaged the company's facility.
The round of evacuation has, according to checks, dwindled the workers' efficiency. A source told Daily Independent that many of them "who are on permanent payrolls of the affected oil companies have collected their June salaries even with dips in their efficiency due to the crisis."
The evacuation by Chevron was triggered by plans by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to bomb its other facilities; insurgents target its facilities since hostilities broke out in May between the JTF and militants over hostage taking and the killing of soldiers.
The group on June 16 bombed, for the second time this year, the Abiteye oil pipeline belonging to the company.
"We held a meeting and the new move was part of the resolution," a Chevron source said.
"Chevron decided to evacuate the personnel and contractors working with it until normalcy is restored.
"We, the workers lined up at Chevron's yard in Escravos to take part in the formalities for the evacuation. We were later airlifted from the Escravos airfield to Ozubi airport in Warri, where we travelled to our various destinations." The workers were told before departure that they would be recalled when the situation improves.
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