Staff of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, on Monday shut down operations nationwide.
This comes after negotiations with management of NUPRC reportedly broke down over issues relating to overseas training opportunities.
The disagreement centred on management’s decision to prioritize local training programmes over foreign capacity-building initiatives.
The commission argued that conducting specialized training within Nigeria would help reduce costs while strengthening domestic institutional capacity.
“We shut down the headquarters and the field offices of the commission across the country over a dispute concerning foreign training programs,” a staff member who spoke anonymously said.
The worker explained that management had insisted that training programs, including those linked to Factory Acceptance Tests for Positive Displacement (PD) Meters, should be conducted locally rather than overseas. The position, he said, was rejected by employees, leading to the strike.
Meanwhile, the commission assured stakeholders that Nigeria’s oil and gas production remains unaffected despite an indefinite strike embarked upon by the workers.
Reacting to concerns over the strike, the head of media and strategic communications at NUPRC, Eniola Akinkuotu, said the disruption was limited to some administrative functions and had not impacted the nation’s oil and gas production activities.
“It is true that some administrative activities were affected today due to industrial action taken by the unions. However, this has not in anyway impacted activities in oil and gas facilities or production in general,” Akinkuotu said.
DAILY POST reports that Nigeria’s average daily crude oil production rose to 1.49 million barrels per day (mbpd) in April 2026. The strike, if left to linger, may affect the country’s crude production despite NUPRC’s management assurances.
