PENGASSAN Shuts Down Dangote Refinery, Fertiliser Plants

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has shut down the Dangote Refinery Plant.

The association shut down the plant on Sunday morning.

According to a status update by the association, the workers also shut down the facility’s fertiliser plant.

It said while the refinery plant is 100% shut down, the fertiliser plant train two is also 100% shut, with train one running at 60% capacity.

The diesel plant, the association said, is still running at the moment.

This followed the directive by the association to its members across the nation to withdraw all services effective 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.

It equally directed its members working across field locations, including control room operations, panel operations, and outfield personnel, to withdraw services effective 06:00 hours on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, and commence 24-hour prayers.

At an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of all its branches on Saturday, the association said Dangote Refinery’s unilateral action to sack over 800 workers for joining PENGASSAN was an affront to all workers in Nigeria and a deliberate violation of Nigeria’s labour laws, the Federal Government’s Constitution, and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention.

PENGASSAN General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, in a statement, said Dangote Refinery’s notoriety for enslaving Nigerian workers, and the eventual sack of all Nigerians working in the refinery and hiring of 2,000 Indians, was a show of disloyalty to a country that has given him the most incentives any company has ever enjoyed in Nigeria, at taxpayers’ expense.

According to PENGASSAN, Dangote has subjected Nigerians to the worst type of working conditions in the oil and gas industry.

To this end, the association resolved that all processes that involve gas and crude supply to Dangote Refinery should be let off effective immediately, even as it also urged all International Oil Companies (IOCs) branches to ramp down gas production and supply to Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals.