Norwegian oil and gas workers start strike, cutting output (updated)

Orron Energy AB

04/07/2022 23:04

(Adds detail)
    By Gwladys Fouche and Nora Buli
    OSLO, July 5 (Reuters) - Norwegian offshore workers on
Tuesday began a strike that will reduce oil and gas output, the
union leading the industrial action told Reuters.    
    The strike, in which workers are demanding wage hikes to
compensate for rising inflation, comes amid high oil and gas
prices, with supplies of natural gas to Europe especially tight
after Russian export cutbacks.
    "The strike has begun," Audun Ingvartsen, the leader of the 
Lederne trade union said in an interview.
    The Norwegian government has said it was following the
conflict "closely". It can intervene to stop a strike if there
are exceptional circumstances.     
    On Tuesday, oil and gas output will be reduced by 89,000
barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), of which gas output
makes up 27,500 boepd, Equinor  EQNR.OL  has said.
    On Wednesday, the strike will deepen the cut to the
country's gas output to a total of 292,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day, or 13% of output, NOG said on Sunday.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YK0AQ
    Oil output will from Wednesday be cut by 130,000 barrels per
day, the lobby had said, corresponding to around 6.5% of
Norway's production, according to a Reuters calculation.
    A further planned escalation by Saturday could see close to
a quarter of Norway's gas output shut, as well as around 15% of
its oil production, according to a Reuters calculation.
    It is ultimately the operator's - Equinor's - decision to
shut output. Equinor was not immediately available to comment on
the last announced escalation.
    
    THREE-STEP ESCALATION
    Industrial action began at midnight local time (2200 GMT) at
three fields - Gudrun, Oseberg South and Oseberg East - and will
expand to three other fields - Kristin, Heidrun and Aasta
Hansteen - from midnight on Wednesday.
    A seventh field, Tyrihans, will also have to shut on
Wednesday because its output is processed from Kristin.
    By July 9, Sleipner, Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C would likely
stop producing as Lederne members are senior employers
considered crucial to operations, 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 boepd and natural gas output by
close to 230,000 boepd, according to a Reuters calculation.    
    Members of the Lederne trade union 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.

 (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Nora Buli, editing by Terje
Solsvik)
 ((gwladys.fouche@tr.com; +47 21 04 05 53; Reuters Messaging:
Twitter handle: @gfouche))