July 16, 2002
Posted to the web July 16, 2002

Mike Oduniyi
Lagos

Contract staff picket Shell offices

Negotiations between US oil firm ChevronTexaco and Itsekiri women, who invaded the company's Escravos Tank Farm, has remained deadlocked as the siege on the crude oil terminal entered its eighth day yesterday.

THISDAY checks however, reveal that the protesters freed 300 oil workers of the 1,000 said to have been trapped in the tank farm since Monday last week, while the remaining 700 others are still held hostage.

The women, numbering about 150 from Ugborodo communities in Delta State, have defied all entrities from ChevronTexaco to vacate the crude oil storage and export facilities.

Chevron spokesman Mr. Wole Agunbiade said yesterday that the company remained hopeful of sealing an agreement with the protesters.

"There is always the tendency for such kind of negotiation to drag on for long, but we are hoping to wrap it up very soon," said Agunbiade.

"Already the protesters have allowed 300 workers due for crew change out of Escravos," he added.

The women stormed the Escravos Tank Farm where the country's third largest oil export terminal is also located, blocking activities at the crude oil terminal operated by ChevronTexaco.

The workers, comprising Nigerian and expatriate employees of Chevron as well as contractors, have been trapped at the tank farm since then as the protesters took over key operational facilities including the airport runaway thus preventing the take-off or landing of planes and helicopters.

Fears heightened yesterday that the 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) Warri refinery, might be shut down very soon as the protracted negotiations might cut off crude supply to the plant.

Chevron produces 450,000 bpd of oil out of Nigeria's daily output of 1.787 million barrels.

Agunbiade said that oil lifting at the terminal was yet to be affected. "Our lifting for this month will not be affected," he added.

Meanwhile, the spate of crisis afflicting the nation's oil industry crept yesterday into Shell Petroleum Development Company, as service contract staff embarked on picketing of the company's offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Warri.

In Lagos, the contract staff had massed in front of the Marina Head office of the oil firm, preventing workers from going in.

Shell later said in a statement signed by its Corporate External Relations Manager, Mr Donald Boham, that the protesters also invaded the company's residential areas in Warri and Port Harcourt, cutting off utility services.

"The picketing workers are employees of contractors who provide services to SPDC. This action by the service contract staff therefore cannot be justified," said Boham.

He said that the company had drawn the attention of the contractors to the action of their staff, who had already begun talks in order to end the picketing.

Speaking on BBC Network Africa earlier yesterday Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, said "We hope that by the end of the day, there will be a solution to this problem."

The governor said that, dialogue was the only way to resolve the dispute at the Escravos oil terminal.

"I believe that these issues can be discussed and resolved amicably... The best way to deal with it is through dialogue," he said.

But he said he understood the struggle of the women who have been occupying the terminal since last Monday.

"I deeply sympathise with them. I am from this community, so I feel what they feel," he said.

He agreed with the protesters that the local community was not getting a fair deal from the oil companies.

"There needs to be a change of policy," he said.