By Moses Akaigwe
The management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has strongly condemned the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), over a directive instructing its members to halt crude oil and gas supply to the refinery, describing the action as lawless.
Dangote Refinery in an official statement issued on Saturday stated that it has come to its notice that there exists a written directive issued by PENGASSAN on 26 September 2025 to several of its branches, including those in TotalEnergies E&P, Seplat Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Renaissance, Chevron, Oando, Shell Nigeria Gas, SNG, and NGIC.
According to the statement, the directive ordered members to “cut off gas supply to NGIC effective immediately” and ensure that “all crude oil supply valves to the Dangote Refinery should be shut,” with loading operations for vessels also to be halted.
PENGASSAN further instructed branch chairmen to enforce the directive and report back on compliance.
The Refinery therefore, insisted that “Absolutely no law gives PENGASSAN the right to direct its branches to cut off gas and crude oil supplies to Dangote Refinery or anywhere else,”
The statement read.“This amounts to criminal conduct intended to disrupt or interfere with legally-binding supply contracts. PENGASSAN has no right or authority to interfere in these matters.”
“This contradiction reveals the Association’s abandonment of lawful recourse and preference for illegal and disruptive actions that could destabilise the nation,” the statement added.
In the statement, Dangote Refinery further explained that “All strata of Nigerians depend on these products, whether high and mighty or lowly and ordinary. In what circumstance could it be justified for PENGASSAN to impose insufferable hardship on the people by cutting off supply to the refinery?”
The refinery insisted that the directive amounted to sabotage not only against its operations, but also against the Nigerian state, given the strategic national importance of the Dangote facility, the only refinery of its size in Africa.
“This is a disincentive to both local and international investors, who would have expected encouragement from the success of Dangote Refinery as a strategic national asset.
“PENGASSAN’s directive risks undermining Nigeria’s credibility in attracting investment and poses a direct threat to government revenues,” it added.
The company equally called on the Federal Government, security agencies, and state governments to urgently intervene to prevent what it described as an attempt to introduce “chaos and irredeemable hardship” into Nigerian society.
“We are calling on all Nigerians to take note of this development. This is not only an attack on Dangote Refinery, but a fight for all Nigerians. The repercussions would affect every household that depends on petroleum products,” the management said.
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