️ A refinery in Nigeria accused of dismissing workers for joining a union has emerged as key to the UK government's hopes of saving the summer holiday amid a jet fuel shortage caused by the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
️ Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said at the weekend that part of the answer to the crisis was to import more fuel from the US and West Africa. The main refinery on the west coast of Africa exporting fuel to the UK for commercial flights is Dangote in Lagos, which started producing aviation fuel in January 2024. According to market data company Kpler, about 130,000 tonnes of jet fuel was imported into the UK in March 2025 from the huge Nigerian plant.
️ Owned by reputedly the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, the refinery has been accused by unions of being a "plantation of exploitation". Last autumn, the Nigerian government had to mediate in a dispute when the company was accused of sacking workers after they had joined the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (Pengassan) union. It was alleged that more than 800 Nigerian workers had been fired after voluntarily joining the union and that some had been replaced with foreign nationals, mostly from India.
️ The company denied the allegations, saying a limited reorganisation had targeted a small number of workers who were disrupting operations and undermining the stability of the facility. Dangote maintained that more than 3,000 Nigerians remained employed and that the company did not block union participation. The Nigerian Labour Congress claimed that Dangote had a "consistent record of union-busting, exploitative labour practice".
️ The government stepped in and confirmed the right to union membership, adding that it had been agreed that the management of Dangote Group shall immediately begin the process of redeploying the disengaged staff to other companies within the group, with no loss of pay. An internal company memo was reportedly sent last week confirming that affected staff were being recalled.
️ Fossil fuels from the Gulf have effectively been at a standstill since 28 February, after the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas flows. British refineries have already been asked to maximise jet fuel supply as part of government contingency planning, amid growing fears that planes will be grounded this summer. Alexander said: "We're importing a lot more jet fuel from the US. We have also asked the refineries here to maximise production. We've got more oil, jet fuel coming from refineries on the west coast of Africa as well."
Source: www.theguardian.com