Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector faces a looming crisis after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) ordered an immediate halt to gas and crude oil supply to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
In a directive issued on September 26, 2025, and signed by General Secretary Comrade Lumumba Ighotemu Okugbawa, the union instructed its branch chairmen in Total Energies, Seplat, Chevron, Oando, Shell Nigeria Gas, Renaissance, and the Nigerian Gas Infrastructure Company (NGIC) to cut off supply lines and suspend vessel loading operations linked to the refinery.
The drastic action follows the alleged mass sack of Nigerian workers at the facility after they sought to unionize, a move PENGASSAN described as “illegitimate” and “anti-labour.”
“NGIC Chairman, ensure that gas supply to the refinery is cut off effective immediately. All crude oil supply valves to the refinery should be shut. The loading operation for vessels headed there should be halted immediately,” the directive read.
The development deepens the refinery’s troubles, coming just days after it announced the suspension of petrol sales in naira, raising fears of dollarisation and potential pump price hikes above N900 per litre.
Analysts warn that if enforced, the union’s directive could cripple operations at Africa’s largest refinery, disrupt domestic supply of petrol and gas, and destabilize government efforts to reform the downstream sector.
With Dangote Refinery considered central to Nigeria’s energy security, stakeholders say the labour clash now threatens to snowball into a national emergency unless urgent intervention is secured.