Palpable fear has gripped the Nigerian staff of Chevron and Shell as the two multinationals begin compilation of 8,000 names for sack. New Telegraph had exclusively reported plans by Chevron and Shell to sack 8, 000 staff in addition to the 8, 000 employees they announced earlier this year as the accounts of the oil firms slips into red.
Further checks by this newspaper at the weekend revealed that managements of the two oil companies have begun to compile names of those who will be affected in Nigeria. This action, sources at the two oil firms told this newspaper, was occasioned by earlier correspondences sent to managements of the companies’ subsidiaries in Nigeria.
“That is what everybody is talking about here,” a Shell staff said after his anonymity was guaranteed. “The situation is even worse for some of us who are non-technical staff,” his Chevron’s counterpart added. He continued: “Up till now we do not know how many staff in Nigeria will be affected but we are aware that the list being compiled has a mandate to include about 95 per cent of staff from finance: audit and accounting; human resources, government, public relations and communications among others. “The remaining five per cent will make up technical staff, who are due for retirement and those with incriminating memos in their files,” he said.
The New York Times had reported penultimate Sunday that Chevron would axe 7,000 staff in addition to the 1,500 it announced early this year while Shell, according to Reuters, also plans to sack 1000 more staff different from the 6,500 it announced for sack in the first quarter.
Although the two multi-nationals did not give a break-down of how many staff in their Nigerian operations will be affected, Chevron said on its website that Nigeria “is an important part of Chevron’s business globally” while Shell, which is also the biggest oil firm in Nigeria in terms of assets and production, “produces substantial volume of its global output from Nigeria.”
Like Chevron and Shell, other international oil companies (IOCs) at the weekend posted unprecedented losses in the third quarter, which is the worst since the downturn started. The trio of Chevron, Shell and Eni, with heavy assets and production in Nigeria, posted $12 billion losses in three months as their outlooks dimmed.
-New Telegraph
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