Nigerian union orders oil shutdown from Sunday

Reuters

12 January 2012

Nigerian union orders oil shutdown from Sunday

LAGOS/ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's main oil union said Thursday it would shut down output from Africa's biggest oil producer Sunday if the government did not reverse its decision to remove publicly popular fuel subsidies.

Tens of thousands of Nigerians have been protesting up and down Africa's most populous nation for four straight days in protest against the axing of the petrol subsidy, which more than doubled the price to around 150 naira ($0.93) per liter.

"PENGASSAN shall be forced to go ahead and apply the bitter option of ordering the systematic shutting down of oil and gas production with effect from ... 0000 hours of Sunday January 15 (2300 GMT Saturday January 14), if the federal government of Nigeria fails to yield to the popular agitation of Nigerians on her unacceptable approach to fuel subsidy removal," the oil union said in a statement.

Industry officials doubted unions would be able to stop crude exports completely because much of production is automated and Nigeria has crude stored in reserves, but even a minor outage could have a significant impact on the economy.