Page 10 - AfrOil Week 16 2020

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
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Some Nigerian press agencies said that CNL had taken this step because it suspected that these staff members were suffering from the SARS- CoV-2 virus.
CNL subsequently denied these reports, say- ing that none of its workers were known to have suffered from COVID-19. It also stated that it was taking extra measures to keep staff mem- bers safe, such as requiring workers seeking to return to the Escravos area to submit detailed travel reports and then undergo a compulsory two-week quarantine.
“Based on the directive issued by the federal government of Nigeria regarding sustained operations in the oil and gas industry during the period of the coronavirus pandemic, CNL entered into arrangements with some hotels and other facilities in Warri and Lagos where our staff on rotational duties would be accommo- dated,” explained Esimaje Brikinn, CNL’s gen- eral manager for policy, government and public affairs. “During their stay there, their health sta- tuses are monitored to ensure they do not have the COVID-19 virus before returning to work at the company’s Escravos operations.”
CNL staff will also have to observe the rules governing social distancing, personal hygiene and the use of protective gear, Brikinn said. He added: “We are also working with the hotels and other facilities where the personnel will be placed, to ensure that the hotels and facilities [maintain] high levels of sanitation and follow strict adherence to all COVID 19 protocols.”
ExxonMobil in detention
The CNL representative was speaking on the same day that another tense situation emerged in Nigeria – namely, the arrest of 22 ExxonMobil employees – including the chief security officer of the US major’s local branch and 21 members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) – by Rivers State policemen.
Kingsley Udoidua, PENGASSAN’s branch secretary for ExxonMobil, told the Nigerian press that police forces had “rebuffed all expla- nations and forced [the detainees] to move to Elekaya Stadium, Port Harcourt, where they have been detained, verbally assaulted and starved.”
Local authorities described the matter quite differently, with Governor Wike reporting on April 17 that the ExxonMobil staffers had been arrested because they had violated his executive order imposing a lockdown on Rivers State. Since the workers had entered the state from neighbouring Akwa Ibom, he said, they had to be detained and put into quarantine at a local isolation centre, in line with local efforts to rein in the coronavirus outbreak.
State authorities’ actions drew a sharp response from PENGASSAN. Later on April 17, the union, which is a powerful force in Nigeria, threatened to stage a strike on April 20 unless the ExxonMobil employees were released. Wike’s administration gave way and set the detainees free without charge on April 19. PENGASSAN then duly suspended its plans for a work stoppage.
What next?
Further clashes seem likely. This is partly because of the widespread perception in Nige- ria that oil and gas company employees bear an outsized share of responsibility for the spread of the virus, but it also stems from long-standing disagreements between Wike and Nigeria’s fed- eral government.
The former has repeatedly expressed suspi- cion about the latter’s willingness to protect the interests of Rivers State over those of oil and gas operators. ™
PENGASSAN threatened a strike to pritest the detention of 22 oil workers (Photo: Delta Breed)
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 16 22•April•2020