Nigeria's Dangote oil refinery said on Friday it had laid off a small number of workers citing sabotage in various units, sparking criticism from an oil workers' union which said over 800 Nigerian workers were fired.
The workers were unjustly dismissed to be replaced by more than 2,000 Indian workers, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, known as PENGASSAN, said in a statement.
Africa's largest refinery, with crude processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has created a new swing supplier in the Atlantic Basin with the potential to reshape global fuel trading.
"To clarify recent reports concerning the ongoing reorganisation within its facility...This exercise is not arbitrary. It has become necessary to safeguard the refinery from repeated acts of sabotage that have raised safety concerns and affected operational efficiency," the refinery said in a statement.
It did not confirm how many workers had lost their jobs or whether the layoffs would affect production. More than 3,000 Nigerian staff continue to work for the plant, it said.
A copy of a letter from the refinery sent to one worker and seen by Reuters told the recipient they were fired with effect from the evening of September 25.
Staff were laid off because they joined a union, an official at PENGASSAN said.
"This is totally wrong and we condemn it in its entirety," said Lumumba Okugbawa, secretary general of PENGASSAN.
The refinery, in its statement, said the company upholds internationally accepted labour principles including the right of every worker to freely decide whether or not to join a union.
Dangote shut its gasoline unit in late August for repairs likely to take 2-3 months.
The plant, which began processing crude in January 2024, exported a higher volume of fuel oil in September, according to shipping data firm Kpler.
Modern oil refineries typically export higher volumes of fuel oil when they have an outage or maintenance.
(Reporting by Enes Tunagur and Isaac Anyaogu Additional Reporting by Owolabi Tife; editing by Alex Lawler, David Goodman and Jason Neely)