Workers at Seplat Energy, Nigeria’s largest independent oil and gas producer, began an indefinite strike \u200bon Friday in a move that could crimp \u200coutput just as rising global oil prices increase pressure on the country to maximise supply.<\/p>\n
The action by members of the Petroleum and \u200bNatural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), a union \u200bof professional oil staff, follows a breakdown in \u2060talks over a 2026 collective bargaining agreement and staff \u200bwelfare issues, the union said in two letters to the \u200bCEO seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n
It said action was “until further notice”.<\/p>\n
Seplat Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
PENGASSAN said its members would \u200bsuspend most operations, including production reporting and export activities, \u200bwhile maintaining only essential safety and power functions.
\nThe strike notice covers onshore \u200cand \u2060offshore assets, joint\u2011venture operations and offices nationwide from Friday. Other less skilled workers are covered by a second union that is not on strike.<\/p>\n
Seplat Energy\u2019s group production averaged 131 506 \u200bbarrels of oil \u200bequivalent per \u2060day in 2025, according to its latest audited results. That is the equivalent of around \u200b7%\u20139% of Nigeria\u2019s total liquids production.<\/p>\n
The company expects \u200boutput \u2060to rise to 155 000 boepd, making any sustained disruption particularly sensitive for Nigeria\u2019s supply outlook.<\/p>\n
Nigeria is Africa\u2019s largest oil producer \u2060and \u200bhigher oil prices, fiscal pressures and \u200bthe ramp\u2011up of the Dangote refinery have sharpened the government\u2019s need to lift crude output \u200band foreign\u2011exchange earnings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13693,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30727","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Seplat Energy\u2019s group production averaged 131 506 \u200bbarrels of oil \u200bequivalent per \u2060day in 2025.","published_date":"","news_description":"Seplat Energy\u2019s group production averaged 131 506 \u200bbarrels of oil \u200bequivalent per \u2060day in 2025.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30728,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30727\/revisions\/30728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}