A spokesman for Nigeria’s Dangote refinery said Tuesday that the country would not see a petrol shortage despite an ongoing strike by a union representing fuel tanker drivers.

The strike, which began Monday and has since drawn support from other unions in Nigeria and abroad, comes as the refinery, the largest in Africa, is hiring its own drivers to deliver gasoline to retailers.

“There is no fuel shortage, everything is going on,” a refinery spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, told AFP, adding that talks were continuing between the union, the government, and the company.

Before last year’s opening of the Dangote refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had to import almost all its petrol despite being a major oil producer.

Critics pointed to years of neglect and mismanagement of government-owned refineries.

The Dangote refinery has driven down prices of petrol for consumers while also shaking up long-entrenched players in Nigeria’s oil sector, marred by decades of corruption.

But it has also sparked monopoly fears as it becomes a powerful player backed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Last month, the refinery was set to deploy a fleet of thousands of trucks powered by compressed natural gas to distribute its petrol nationwide, an initiative that has been delayed due to logistics issues.

But the plans have roiled a market where more than 20,000 diesel-powered tankers have operated for decades.

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers launched its strike Monday, alleging that Dangote’s new drivers were being hired on the condition they do not join the union—allegations disputed by Dangote.

“What Dangote has shown over time is that he’s not prepared to have workers that will have a say in his employment,” union president Williams Akporeha told Nigerian broadcaster Arise News on Tuesday.

NUPENG has seen support pour in from local organisations, including the Nigeria Labour Congress, as well as groups from abroad, including global union IndustriALL, based in Switzerland, and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers network branch in Washington.

Chiejina, the Dangote spokesman, denied the claim that its drivers were not being allowed to join a union, calling it “cheap blackmail.”

“It’s not true… nobody has done that and nobody ever has,” he said.

AFP