There are indications that Chevron Nigeria may be going through difficulties following collapse of the global oil business which has left most of the oil majors in confusion.
The tough times experienced by Chevron Nigeria is not unconnected with the problems experienced by the parent company. Last weekend Chevron Corporation completed the sack of 8, 500 of its staff in its Nigeria and global operations, posting its first annual loss in more than three decades.
The company sacked 7,000 in 2016 after cuts of billions of dollars in asset sales and the accumulation of staggering debt to survive the industry collapse.
The global corporation in a statement last Friday said it posted its first annual loss since 1980.
Chevron Corporation had a $497 million loss last year and failed to replace all of the crude and natural gas it pumped with new reserves.
The company revealed in its post year-end results, published last weekend, that 2017 would also witness 15 per cent investments cut in Nigeria which signifies what to expect from the company’s operations in months to come.
Chevron, whose contracts termination led to the fresh sack of about 250 oil workers in Nigeria this month, is the first to publish its post year-end results and its results signaled the difficulties faced by the world’s biggest oil companies, as they struggle to emerge from the worst collapse in a generation.
It will be recalled that the sack of Nigerian workers by Chevron and other oil majors was highly challenged by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria(PENGASSAN) over what they described as anti-labour activities which led to a suspended 3-day warning strike following the intervention of the Minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
Chevron has been grappling with rebel attacks on its production and transport assets in Nigeria, and has come under suspicion from the Senate for allegedly inflating the cost of a gas project.
Before it slowed down its militancy threat, the Niger Delta Avengers caused four explosions at Chevron oil and gas transport infrastructure sites in the Niger Delta, and the group despite attempts by the government to initiate peace negotiations. The attacks Chevron it to shut down its Escravos gas-to-liquid production and export terminal.
Last year, the Senate Committee on Gas started investigation into the Escravos project, claiming that Chevron inflated the cost of the project by a hefty $7.4 billion to a total $10.3 billion with no good reason and without consulting its JV partner, the National Nigerian Petroleum Corporation, thus violating its JV contract.
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