Minister of State for Petro­leum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has taken steps to avert an impending industri­al action at Agbami Offshore Oilfield operated by Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL).

Mr. Lumumba Okugba­wa, General-Secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), said this in a telephone con­versation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Yenagoa.

Okugbawa said that Syl­va had scheduled a meeting with leadership of the union for Thursday, to find a lasting solution to the industrial dis­harmony.

PENGASSAN had threat­ened to down tools and shut­down the deep offshore facil­ity over moves by Chevron to cut its workforce by 25 percent, among other issues.

It would be recalled that CNL had in a statement on October 2, 2020 announced plans to lay off at least 600 of its workforce, a develop­ment that irked the in-house branch of PENGASSAN to protest.

Esimaje Brikinn, CNL’s General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, had in a response statement, noted that the 25 percent job cut was to repo­sition the oil firm for greater efficiency and competitive­ness.

Okugbawa said that, “the Minister of State for Petro­leum Resources has sched­uled a meeting on April 15.

“We are not on strike yet, the Minister of Petroleum, Timipri Sylva, has sched­uled a meeting with us for negotiations.

“It is after our meeting with him that we shall agree on the decision for the indus­trial action.

“By the end of work on Thursday, the outcome of our meeting will be known,” the PENGASSAN scribe said.

Agbami field which has capacity for up to 250,000 bar­rels per day (bpd) currently produces some 140,000bpd according to industry data.