Lagos (Platts)--24Aug2012/832 am EDT/1232 GMT

Nigerian blue-collar oil workers' union Nupeng has suspended a general strike that was due to start Friday over fuel subsidy payments, after reaching a deal with the government.

"The strike action has been called off," Nupeng president Igwe Achese said on state radio.

Truckers have been directed to resume fuel loadings and supply to the capital Abuja, he added.

A government statement issued after a meeting with the union said "all the issues raised over subsidy payments, non-payment of salaries, among others will be looked into and reviewed in two weeks."

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The government also agreed to continue talks with the union, fuel depot owners and marketing companies.

Nupeng said Wednesday it would call out its members on strike Friday over the non-payment of outstanding subsidies to fuel marketers, which would have disrupted domestic oil product supply because the union planned to shut fuel depots and stop tanker drivers from loading fuel.

The union said the non-payment of the subsidy amounted to more than Naira 200 billion ($1.25 billion) and had forced the marketers to consider job cuts.

The government's fuel import regulator, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, also announced Friday it would start a new pre-qualification and registration process for companies wishing to import fuel into Nigeria. This would include current importers as well as new ones.

The PPPRA gave a September 7 deadline for companies to submit documents for registration and requested details of applicants' previous imports within the West African coast sub-region.

"The implementation timeline will be with effect from fourth quarter of 2012. All oil marketing companies involved in the PSF [subsidy] scheme are to note that with effect from the fourth quarter of 2012, the agency shall not process purchases of products from oil trading companies that are not cleared by the agency," the statement said.

Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer but imports more than 80% of the fuel consumed domestically due to the poor condition of its four state-run refineries.

The government pays subsidies to importers to keep domestic pump prices down.

The finance ministry said it delayed the payment to clear up cases of fraud related to the subsidy payments and said on Thursday that 25 fuel marketers, mainly local companies, were being investigated for collecting a total of Naira 58.7 billion in subsidies for 2011 fuel imports that were never delivered.

--Staff, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Dart, jonathan_dart@platts.com

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