BP employees strike over job uncertainty

By Jean Christou

SOME 70 British Petroleum (BP) outlets and the central offices of the British petrol giant will be closed for two hours today due to a strike by employees uncertain over the company’s future in Cyprus.

The employees are worried over reports that BP is planning to sell out to an unnamed foreign company and fear for their jobs. The company’s outlets will remain closed for two hours from 10am to 12pm, but the employees also warned that unless they are briefed as to the company’s intentions, they will stage a 24-hour strike from Monday.

Reports surfaced in August that BP was planning to sell-off its interest in Cyprus and a government source told the Cyprus Mail at the time that the British company was set to go and that it was close to striking a deal with a foreign company.

It was understood however that BP would maintain its refuelling operations at the island’s airports.

The government said no deal could be struck with rival Exxon Mobil because it would create a monopoly on the island. Last year when Mobil merged with Esso, the former was forced to sell off 22 of its stations to BP and 16 to newcomer Russian company Lukoil in a deal worth £12 million. French giant Total Elf and the Greek Petroleum Refineries and Greek company Eco are reportedly in the picture.

BP started business in Cyprus in 1982 and currently employs 64 people and reports suggest that BP’s employees would simply be transferred to its successor if the company pulls out.

Lukoil this week began rebranding outlets to its trademark logo in Nicosia and other areas following the July 1 deal with BP and Exxon Mobil.

Lukoil’s 16 stations will now give the company a six per cent share of the Cyprus market.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.