Nigerian oil union threatens to shut down crude output

By Austin Ekeinde and Chijioke Ohuocha

PORT HARCOURT/LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian oil workers threatened on Wednesday to shut down output in Africa's top crude producer, deepening a national strike over a more than doubling of petrol prices.

With the government and unions locked in a showdown which has paralysed Nigeria for three days, the biggest oil union said it was ready to halt oil production, although industry officials doubted it could shut down crude exports completely.

"Now that the Federal Government has decided to be callous minded, we hereby direct all production platforms to be on red alert in preparation for total production shutdown," Babatunde Ogun, president of oil union PENGASSAN, said in a statement.

A definite decision to halt output had yet to be made, but Ogun said workers were already not sending production reports back to the government, which was "one of the very first steps in shut down process".

In response, the government urged unions to negotiate.

"The government is worried about the threat to shut down oil production because if they go ahead to carry out their threat that action will worsen our economic problem which the government is trying to solve, this is why the government is calling on labour and the civil society to come for dialogue," Labaran Maku, minister of information, said via email.

Nigeria exports over 2 million barrels of crude oil per day and is a major supplier to the United States and Europe. Output has been unaffected so far but concerns about Nigerian supply can move global oil prices, although they were down on Wednesday as traders worried more about the European economy.

Oil industry officials said a complete halt to oil exports was unlikely because processes were automated and some workers non-unionised. However, even a small dent in output would heap pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan's government, which relies on crude exports for 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings and most of its state revenue.