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Norway oil and gas workers to go on strike and cut output
The union and the lobby representing oil companies in Norway said on Monday (July 4), Norwegian offshore workers will likely go on strike on Tuesday (July 5) in a stoppage that will cut oil and gas output as the negotiating parties have not made progress.
A spokesman for the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) told Reuters: "As it stands now, there will be a strike tonight. The situation is quite locked ... No talks are scheduled today."
Industrial action will begin at midnight local time (2200 GMT) at three fields - Gudrun, Oseberg South and Oseberg East - and will then expand at three other fields - Kristin, Heidrun and Aasta Hansteen - from midnight on Wednesday (July 6).
A seventh field, Tyrihans, will have to shut because its output is processed from Kristin.
The Lederne union said on Monday it would further escalate the industrial action from July 9, taking workers on strike at the Sleipner, Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C platforms.
Lederne union head Audun Ingvartsen told Reuters: "As things stand now, it looks like there will be a strike.”
Equinor has said that by Tuesday (July 5), oil output would be cut by 89,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and gas output by 27,500 boepd, or 4.4 mcm per day.
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NOG said on Sunday (July 3) that by Wednesday (July 6), a strike would cut the country's gas output by 292,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 13% of output.
According to a Reuters calculation, oil output would be cut by 130,000 barrels per day, the lobby added, corresponding to around 6.5% of Norway's production.
By July 9, Sleipner, Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C would likely stop producing, as Lederne members are senior workers considered essential to production, with potential ripple effects on other fields which pump their product via those fields.
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According to a Reuters calculation, if they did, it could reduce the output of crude and other oil liquids by another 160,000 boed and natural gas output by close to 230,000 boed.
Close to a quarter of Norway gas output would thus be shut by Saturday, as well as around 15% of its oil production.
The Norwegian government has said it was following the conflict "closely". It can intervene to stop a strike if there are exceptional circumstances.
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The strike, in which workers are demanding wage hikes to compensate for rising inflation, comes amid high oil and gas prices, with supplies of gas to Europe especially tight after Russian export cutbacks.
Members of the Lederne trade union, who represent senior workers, on Thursday voted down a proposed wage agreement that had been negotiated by companies and union leaders.
Norway's other oil and gas labour unions have accepted the wage deal and will not go on strike.
Source: anews
