Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has assured the public that there will be no petrol shortage despite a strike by fuel tanker drivers that began Monday.
The industrial action, led by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, has since gained backing from other unions within Nigeria and internationally.
Anthony Chiejina, a spokesperson for the refinery, told AFP on Tuesday that operations continue as usual, with the company employing its own drivers to deliver gasoline to retailers.
“There is no fuel shortage, everything is going on,” Chiejina said, adding that discussions between the union, government, and the company are ongoing.
Before the refinery’s inauguration last year, Nigeria, despite being a major oil producer, relied heavily on imported petrol. Government-owned refineries had long been criticized for neglect and mismanagement.
Since opening, the Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, with a 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity, has helped lower petrol prices and disrupted long-standing players in the nation’s oil sector, which has historically been plagued by corruption.
However, its rapid growth has raised concerns over monopoly power, given the backing of Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote.
The refinery had plans to deploy a nationwide fleet of thousands of compressed natural gas-powered trucks last month to distribute petrol, but logistics challenges have delayed the rollout.
This development has unsettled a market that has relied on more than 20,000 diesel-powered tankers for decades.
NUPENG alleges that Dangote is hiring drivers on the condition that they do not join the union, claims the company denies.
“What Dangote has shown over time is that he’s not prepared to have workers that will have a say in his employment,” union president Williams Akporeha told Arise News on Tuesday.
Chiejina dismissed the allegation, calling it “cheap blackmail” and insisting that no worker has ever been barred from joining a union.