Norway oil and gas workers to strike on Tuesday, cutting output (updated)

Orron Energy AB

04/07/2022 17:19

(Adds latest escalation plan)
    By Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik
    OSLO, July 4 (Reuters) - Norwegian offshore workers will
likely go on strike on Tuesday in a stoppage that will cut oil
and gas output as the negotiating parties have not made
progress, the union and the lobby representing oil companies
said on Monday.
    "As it stands now, there will be a strike tonight," a
spokesman for the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) told
Reuters. "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.
    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.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS8N2WH00X
    "As things stand now, it looks like there will be a strike,"
Lederne union head Audun Ingvartsen told Reuters.
    By Tuesday, 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, Equinor has said.
    By Wednesday, a strike would cut the country's gas output by
292,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 13% of output, NOG
said on Sunday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YK0AQ
    Oil output would be cut by 130,000 barrels per day, the
lobby added, corresponding to around 6.5% of Norway's
production, according to a Reuters calculation.
    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.
    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, according to a Reuters calculation.
    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.
    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.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YI3KA
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YH35Z
    Norway's other oil and gas labour unions have accepted the
wage deal and will not go on strike.

 (Editing by Nora Buli, Louise Heavens, William Maclean)
 ((gwladys.fouche@tr.com; +47 21 04 05 53; Reuters Messaging:
Twitter handle: @gfouche))