The Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has suspended its nationwide one week old strike with immediate effect, reports the News Agency of Nigeria.
The oil workers union suspended the strike at the end of its National Executive Council Meeting, which was called to review offers made by government during days of negotiations.
The union had earlier met with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige.
Details of the agreements reached by the parties are sketchy at this time.
The unions had on July 7 declared a strike over “unresolved issues” affecting the smooth operation of the oil and gas industry.
The acting general secretary of PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa, had told journalists on Tuesday that some of the association’s demands bordered on issues that could strengthen the oil and gas industry and the country’s economy.
They include backlog of cash call arrears dating back to 2014, which he said had greatly hampered the ability of the joint venture partners with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to discharge their obligations both to the industry and their workers.
Other issues include the poor state of the country’s refineries and the massive waste of resources on turn around maintenance (TAM); continued importation of petroleum products; on-going industry reforms and NNPC restructuring as well as the politicisation of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
