Dangote fumes at union’s order to ground refinery

The $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery is facing a major labour crisis following the order by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria for its members across seven oil and gas firms to halt all crude oil and gas supplies to the massive facility.

The refinery, however, slammed the directive, which it described as criminal, lawless and economic sabotage.

At the heart of the crisis is the dismissal of 800 workers, whom the union said were laid off after exercising their constitutional right to join PENGASSAN.

The union alleged that the refinery flew in illegal Indian expatriates to operate in Nigeria’s sensitive energy sector.

It further accused the refinery of wage discrimination, revealing that while Nigerian engineers earned N385,000 monthly, their Indian counterparts were paid upwards of $5,000 (approximately N7.5m).

Crude, gas shutdown

In response to the mass sacking, PENGASSAN on Saturday issued a shutdown directive across its branches in major oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies, Chevron, Seplat, Shell Nigeria Gas, Oando, Renaissance, and the Nigerian Gas Infrastructure Company

The union’s General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, instructed the immediate stoppage of gas and crude supply to Dangote Refinery.

“All crude oil supply valves to the refinery should be shut. Loading operations for any vessel headed to the refinery should be halted immediately. Injury to one is injury to all,” the memo stated.

PENGASSAN also said it would convene an emergency National Executive Council meeting to deliberate on the next phase of action.

Union sources confirmed that discussions centred on a potential nationwide strike should Dangote fail to reinstate the sacked workers and address the alleged injustices.

“Should they fail to reverse this barbaric action, the union will have no choice but to act,” said one senior union official. “This isn’t just about Dangote anymore—it’s about setting a precedent.”

It is gathered that the Nigeria Labour Congress, though not directly involved in the dispute, was monitoring developments pending a formal response from the Trade Union Congress to which PENGASSAN is affiliated.

Efforts to obtain comments from the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the TUC President, Festus Osifo, proved unsuccessful.

Officials either declined comment or did not respond to repeated calls and messages.

PENGASSAN plotting fuel crisis, says Dangote

Reacting to the directive, Dangote accused the union of plotting to deny Nigerians access to petrol, diesel and cooking gas.

In a statement on Saturday, the company said, “Apart from the lawlessness and criminality inherent in the PENGASSAN’s instruction to its branches, the association’s directive amounts to economic sabotage at multiple levels. In plain language, PENGASSAN has directed its branches to disrupt and stop the supply of petroleum products from the Dangote refinery to Nigerians.

“The products that would be disrupted and stopped include but are not limited to aviation fuel, petrol, kerosene, diesel and cooking gas—all products that are used and required by all stripes of Nigerians and persons living in Nigeria, whether high and mighty or lowly and ordinary. In what circumstance would it be justified for PENGASSAN to so disrupt and introduce insufferable hardship into the living conditions of Nigerians? None that we can see.”

It described the directive as a brazen display of criminality.

“Absolutely no law gives PENGASSAN the right to direct its branches to ‘cut off’ gas and crude oil supplies to Dangote Refinery or at all. There is also no law in our statute books that would support or enable the PENGASSAN branches having to cut off gas and crude oil supplies to Dangote Refinery or at all.

Besides, it constitutes criminal conduct for PENGASSAN or its members to disrupt and/or interfere in any way whatsoever with the contract between Dangote Refinery and its various vendors for the supply of gas and crude oil to the refinery. These supply contracts were not entered into with PENGASSAN; they were entered into by Dangote refinery with third-party vendors and suppliers, and PENGASSAN has no right whatsoever to disrupt and/or interfere with the performance of those contracts,” it was stated.

The management insisted Nigeria is governed by law and not mob action.

“Perhaps, PENGASSAN needs to be reminded that Nigeria is a country governed by laws. Our laws do not brook self-help and mob action that could introduce mayhem and chaos and easily translate into anarchy.

“It is instructive that no sooner had the association issued a press release than it abandoned the path of lawfulness and embraced criminal conduct and the path that leads to mayhem and anarchy by issuing the directive aforementioned,” the statement alleged.

Dangote refinery warned that the directive was economic sabotage against both Nigerians and the state, asking in whose interest and on whose behalf PENGASSAN is “directing and intending to inflict such anarchic and criminal disruption upon the Nigerian society and persons living in Nigeria.”

The company stressed that the refinery was a strategic national asset that must be protected.

“This is also economic sabotage against the Nigerian state at multiple levels. Dangote refinery is the only refinery of its type in Africa and ordinarily should be the pride of all Nigerians as well as the government of Nigeria. It should ordinarily have special protection and status and indeed qualifies as a strategic national asset.

An irreparable injury to the Dangote refinery such as PENGASSAN has directed constitutes a national embarrassment to all of us. The directive is a disincentive to external investors who ordinarily would have been encouraged by the success of Dangote Refinery to contemplate investing in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector or generally,“ it stated.

Saying the Dangote refinery is one of the largest contributors to the revenue purse of the government, the company noted that its contribution was being threatened by PENGASSAN and would be paused if the directive was implemented.

The refinery urged the Federal Government and Nigerians to resist the move.

“PENGASSAN has no right to introduce anarchy and mayhem into our society. The association is not above the law, and it must not be allowed to believe that it is or behave as if it is. We are also calling on all Nigerians to take note of the unquantifiable and irredeemable hardship which PENGASSAN wishes to inflict on all of us. There is no Nigerian household that does not use or need the petroleum products which PENGASSAN has now directed its branches, by fiat, to withdraw from the Nigerian market. Again, we list some of them: petrol, cooking gas, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel.

“The production and supply of these products by Dangote Refinery would cease if the PENGASSAN cabal is allowed or permitted to enforce its lawless and criminal directive. The association must not be allowed to ride roughshod over Nigerians. The repercussions from the PENGASSAN directive would affect and inflict harm on all Nigerians. This is therefore a fight for all Nigerians,” the statement added.

Refinery backtracks on dollar payment for fuel

In a notice sent to customers around 6.42pm on Friday, the group commercial operations arm of the refinery had said it was suspending payments in naira for fuel from Sunday, September 28, 2025.

We have been selling petroleum products in excess of our naira-crude allocations and, consequently, we are unable to sustain PMS sales in naira going forward,” the email read.

Customers were advised to request refunds for ongoing naira transactions and await further updates on when naira-based sales might resume.

But we learnt that the Naira-for-Crude Technical Committee intervened in the matter.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, chairs the committee.

The refinery, in a new notice to customers, confirmed that sales in the local currency had resumed and urged marketers to proceed with fresh orders for both self-collection and free delivery at designated depots across the country.

“Following the intervention of the Naira-for-Crude Technical Committee chairman, we are pleased to inform you of the resumption of PMS sales in naira commencing immediately.

“You may kindly proceed to place your orders in Naira for both self-collection and Free delivery of PMS to the earlier advised locations across the country,” the notice read.