NNPC assures of constructive engagement with Unions to improve productivity

By Etuka Sunday

As part of efforts to place the corporation on a the path of solid growth, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has pledged to constructively engage the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to facilitate industrial harmony.
The GMD stated this at a meeting with the Group Executive Committee of both unions at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.
A press release by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, stated that the GMD expressed confidence in the competence of the corporation’s workforce to exploit the enormous potentials available to change the fortune of the national oil company.
Mele Kyari said the engagement was important to enable management and the unions to x-ray issues with a view to finding solutions to challenges facing the oil and gas industry.
He said the current scoping activity going on at the Port Harcourt Refinery was part of the management’s determination to tackle one of the key challenges facing the corporation with the aim of boosting local refining capacity to end fuel importation.
He stated that the corporation under his leadership was ready to confront challenges with new innovative ideas, noting that the priority of his management was to boost the corporation’s revenue base.
“There is no magic around it. There is no way you can increase your revenue until you produce efficiently in a very cost-efficient manner so that those income will cancel your losses. It is important to note that you cannot run efficiently until global standards are met, best practices are respected and the employees see this company as theirs” the GMD said.
In his presentation, the PENGASSAN Group Chairman, Comrade Matthew Duru, said he had no doubt in the GMD’s ability to deliver on his mandate of taking the corporation to greater heights.
On his part, the NUPENG Chairman, Comrade David Edache, pledged the support of the union to all efforts by management to reposition the corporation.