There are reports of panic in the oil industry both in Nigeria and globally, as oil companies are expected to start disclosing their annual reports soon.
Those who have declared their 2015 results and forecast for 2016 have already indicated plans to reduce workforce in 2016 a priority.
Royal Dutch Shell last Wednesday said in its fourth quarter and full-year update it would, in 2016, sack employees globally, including those in their services in Nigeria.
The oil giant said it would cut 10,000 jobs in an effort to further reduce costs amid a severe slump in oil prices.
The United States multinational energy corporation, Chevron, had stated in October 2015 that it might eliminate up to 7,000 jobs, though the firm, which is the third-largest oil producer in Nigeria, did not say when or where in its global operations the jobs will be reduced.
The Manager, Public and Government Affairs, ExxonMobil Nigeria, Akin Fatunke, precisely disclosed that ExxonMobil laid off workers some time ago.
“The same thing is most likely going to happen. As I speak with you, about 104 workers had been laid off in the upstream. I won’t use the word sack, as they are smiling and very happy because they were paid handsomely and they are still our friends,” Fatunke said in a chat with reporters at an energy workshop.
Oil unions are already expressing concerns over the impending global sack in Chevron and Shell, among others, and had called on the federal government to stop companies from extending the planned sack to Nigeria.
The workers, under their umbrella union – the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), in a statement on Friday by the president, Igwe Achese, described the planned sack as alarming. NUPENG warned that it may be forced to embark on industrial action if the federal government fails to stop the companies from sending oil workers in Nigeria to the unemployment market.
Elsewhere, the slump in oil prices has battered energy giants such as BP and Petrobras. Last week, UK oil firm, BP, reportedly said it would cut 4,000 jobs globally, 600 of which will be from its North Sea operations.
The news came as profits continue to suffer, leading to a big cutback in investment across the oil industry. BP said all the job losses would occur in its oil exploration and drilling business.
