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Oil workers under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have shut down the nationwide operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The move by NUPENG and PENGASSAN comes after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, announced on Tuesday that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the unbundling of the NNPC into seven operational units.

Kachikwu said five of the seven new units would be strictly business-focused in line with global best practices. The units are Upstream, Downstream, Gas and Power, Refineries, Ventures, Corporate Planning and Services, and Finance and Accounts.

The Minister, who doubles as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, said the new units would be headed by independent Chief Executives, namely: Bello Rabiu for Upstream; Henry Ikem-Onih (Downstream); Anibor Kragha (Refineries); Saudu Mohammed (Gas and Power), while Babatunde Adeniran, Ventures.

The Group Executive Director in charge of Finance and Accounts would be Isiaka Abdulrazaq, while the Executive Head, Corporate Planning and Services will be Isa Inuwa.

Following this announcement, the Group Executive Committee (GEC) of NUPENG and PENGASSAN convened an emergency general meeting by 10pm on Tuesday to discuss the development.

At the end of their meeting, the GEC said since Kachikwu disregarded due process and failed to engage stakeholders, NUPENG and PENGASSAN would commence a nationwide strike from the midnight of March 8th.

“From midnight today, all NNPC locations will be shut down completely until further notice. Further directives will be communicated accordingly,” NUPENG and PENGASSAN said in a message to oil workers.