Nigerian Oil Workers protest takeover of refinaries.

Oil workers have threatened to “physically” stop the takeover of both Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries by their new owner, Blue Star Oil, a Nigerian consortium.
The workers, under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Employees (NUPENG), said they would stop Blue Star Oil from taking possession of the refineries.
According to them, the price of $561 million paid for the Port Harcourt refinery was far below cost of materials and spare parts currently in store and valued at over $800 million and those in transit valued at $9.2 million.
These, they said, were apart from the crude oil stock valued at $65 million as well as finished and intermediate products in stock valued at $42 million and a storage tank valued at $625 million, all in good conditions.
Jointly addressing newsmen at the Port Harcourt refinery complex weekend, Comrade Osu Lambert, chairman of NUPENG and Comrade Adamu Umar of PENGASSAN, both alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo sold the refineries to himself and his friends in a hurried manner to beat the handover deadline.
They alleged that, since Obasanjo has been proved to hold shares in Blind Trust in Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), which is in the consortium that bought the refineries, he simply sold the complexes to himself and friends without taking into consideration the interest of Nigerians.