One of Nigeria's largest oil workers unions has ended its two-day strike against the Dangote refinery, the government announced on Wednesday.

The decision came following a meeting between the management of Dangote Petroleum and government officials, Nigeria's Labor Ministry said.

In a statement published on X, the Labor Ministry said the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has "agreed to start the process of calling off its strike... while Dangote starts the process of taking the disengaged staff to other companies within the Dangote Group, with no loss of pay." 

Why was the strike called?

The dispute between the PENGASSAN union and Dangote began last week when the union accused the company of firing 800 unionized workers and replacing them with 2,000 Indian workers.

With a crude processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Dangote is Africa's largest refinery. 

Last Friday, PENGASSAN said the workers had been fired for joining the union.

Dangote refinery rebuffed this with officials saying at the time that the dismissals were part of a staff reorganization and accused those affected of acts of sabotage.

A fuel tanker drivers' union had also launched a separate two-day strike in September, after they accused Dangote of hiring new drivers on the condition they didn't join a union. The company also denied these allegations.

Edited by Sean Sinico