France's Total to resume oil, gas output in Nigeria
LAGOS (AFP) - French group Total was set to resume oil and gas production in Nigeria after a six-day stoppage sparked by a dispute with workers, a spokesman for the company's Nigerian subsidiary said.
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"We hope to restart production very soon, hopefully later today. We struck a deal with the workers last night and all is now well," spokesman Fred Ohwahwa told AFP, refusing to disclose details of the deal.
But a spokeswoman at Total's Paris headquarters told AFP that output in Nigeria had already resumed and that the company expected to be back up to full capacity of 215,000 barrels per day by the weekend.
"Production of oil and gas resumed fairly quickly overnight. Oil production has again reached 210,000 barrels per day. We aren't yet back to full capacity but will doubtless be at the weekend," the spokeswoman said.
The Nigerian subsidiary of TotalFinaElf shut down oil and gas production in the west African country last Friday, as workers downed tools to demand better pay and conditions.
Total is the fifth largest producer of oil in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter and the world's sixth largest, with output of 2.5 million barrels per day.
Production in the country is often disrupted by workers' disputes and violence in the oil-producing south.
Last week, as Total shut down production, the Nigerian branch of US oil major ExxonMobil -- the second biggest oil group in Nigeria -- warned that its workers were threatening to go on strike to press for better pay and benefits.
Despite being Africa's biggest oil producer, low refining capacity means Nigeria has to import more than three-quarters of its fuel. Deregulation of the fuel market has led to price rises at the pump -- and strikes across the country, where cheap fuel is regarded as a birth right.
Early this week, oil prices soared to the highest levels for a month on the international market as supply fears were exacerbated by reports of another possible strike by oil workers in Nigeria, traders in London said.
Thursday, the Nigerian government agreed to consult with oil unions over the planned sale of the nation's four ailing refineries, with the aim of averting a potentially crippling oil workers' strike.
"An assurance was given by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE, the nation's privatisation agency) and government that both PENGASSAN and NUPENG (unions) shall be carried along on all labour related issues," a communique issued at the end of a meeting between government and oil union officials said.
"All labour issues shall be discussed and agreed upon before the refineries are handed over to the core investors," said the communique, signed by all parties present at the meeting.
PENGASSAN and NUPENG on June 24 gave government a 21-day ultimatum to rescind its decision on the sale of the refineries. They insisted that new ones must be built before the old ones are sold.
For more than a decade, Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter and the world's sixth largest oil producer, has been importing refined petroleum products due to the poor state of its refineries which have a total capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.
They lie idle, suffering from years of neglect and poor maintenance from the period when Nigeria was under the military rule.
Although President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose election in 1999 marked the end of military rule, has spent about 700 million dollars on the refineries since he came into office, they have yet to come back on stream.
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