By Akinwale Kasali
There was disruption of work at the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, SNEPCo, as workers in the early hours of Tuesday embarked on a protest, locking the gate to the firm’s office on Broad Street, Lagos.
The protest was coordinated by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN. The workers accused the leadership of SNEPCo of practicing modern day slavery, discrimination in pay against Nigerian staff, and conscious bias in pay benchmarking in Nigeria.
The protest led to traffic snarl around the area as passersby paused to catch a glimpse. The protesting workers prevented complete access to the Shell building.
The protesters also barred entry of vehicles, including those of top officials of SNEPCo.
The protesters carried placards with different inscriptions that include; “Stop Modern Day Slavery, “Stop Indiscriminate Payment”, “No to conscious bias in pay benchmarking in Nigeria”.
They also faulted the policy of the firm in the application of global pay policy in Nigeria without consideration for local peculiarities, adding that it is “Best-in-Basin” with poor pay.
The Best-in-Basin is about cutting cost, which affects all operational issues, including attending conferences.
The workers made reference on the company not present at the Nigeria International Energy Summit, NIES, in Abuja in February 2026 as a sponsor, rather, it only sent delegates of about five persons instead of the about 40 persons that are accommodated as sponsors.
It also stated that organisers were only informed about the development about a week before the event.
Other local and International Oil Companies (IOC), including the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas Company (NLNG), Total Nigeria, and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), participated fully at the conference.
SNEPCo was also accused of giving the workers allowances that are not market reflective.
They cited car grants as an example.
One of the protesting workers who claimed anonymity said, “Can you imagine a company giving a staff N1 million to buy a car now?
“Yes, N1 million could look like a huge sum, but it can’t even get you a bicycle not to talk of a car.”
It also accused the management of SNEPCo of enslaving their colleagues they classified as SNSS with poor conditions of service, adding that expatriates were now taking over the jobs meant for Nigerians.
They said there are now several Non-Accidental Deaths (NAD) caused by poor pay, heavy workload, stress, debt burden, and unending reorganisation.
According to a staff of SNEPCo, the workers took the decision to barricade the office because the management had failed to listen to their demands.
Another staff member said there was the need for the government to intervene because the management feels no one can hold them accountable and that they could cause division among the staff.
The staff believes two things work in favour of the management.
The first they is that before now, the staff had started working from home on certain days of the week, this does not enable Staff to gather in their numbers on a daily basis.
The second is the belief that they can stop any staff action from getting publicised.
This, the workers says is a way to silence them airing their views and also correcting some anomalies.
SNEPCo had a major divestment in Nigeria, with Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) as its main preoccupation now, which has almost limited its activities to Lagos.
However, it still has AllOn and Daystar as subsidiaries also.
They also both operate largely from Lagos, developing the energy sector through financing.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Company on the workers protest proved abortive as the gate of the organization was locked as at press time.
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