The $20 billion largest single-train refinery in the world, Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals on Thursday, September 25, sacked some of its workers in what it called ‘a total reorganization.’

The action, it was gathered, followed reported cases of sabotage in different refinery units that raised serious safety concerns.

Chief General Manager of Human Asset Management at Dangote Group, Femi Adekunle, confirmed the disengagement in a document sighted Friday.by our correspondent

The total reorganization of the refinery, Adekunle said, followed multiple cases of reported sabotage across refinery units that posed major safety risks.

According to him, the management was left with no choice but to carry out a total reorganization of the refinery, resulting in the disengagement of the affected staff, effective Thursday, September 25, 2025.

The employees were told to give all company property to their line managers and obtain an exit clearance, with the specific date for the process to be communicated later.

“The Finance Department, by a copy of this letter, is advised to compute all your benefits and entitlements in line with your terms of employment and conditions of service and pay the amount due to you (less all indebtedness), subject to the condition that you have obtained the exit clearance certificate as mentioned above,” Adekunle stated.

Recall that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in solidarity with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had earlier threatened to shut down Dangote Refinery over management’s refusal to allow tanker drivers and other employees to unionize.

PENGASSAN voiced its frustration with what it described as the refinery’s persistent resistance to unionization efforts, stressing that “all diplomatic efforts had failed to resolve the issue.”

The union further warned that if the standoff continued, it would have no option but to “join NUPENG in shutting down refinery operations to protect workers’ rights and interests.”

The Dangote Refinery, an oil refinery owned by Dangote Group, was inaugurated on 22 May 2023 in Lekki, Lagos , Nigeria.

When fully operational, it is expected to have the capacity to process about 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it the largest single-train refinery in the world. The investment is estimated at US$20 billion