Oil workers in much of Argentina launched a 48-hour strike Monday, with a labor union saying the action could be extended if demands for higher wages are not met.
If oil producers and services companies do not agree to increase wages by at least 30% before the end of Tuesday, the strike will continue through Wednesday, Jorge Avila, secretary general of the Union of Private Oil and Gas Workers in Chubut, said in a statement over the weekend.
If there is still no response by the end of Wednesday, then the walkout will go on "indefinitely", he said.
The strike had originally been planned for much of Patagonia, a southern region that produces most of the country's oil and natural gas. But it gained adherence by unions elsewhere in the region as well as in the northwestern province of Salta, according to the statement.
This means the strike is affecting about 99% of Argentina's 530,000 b/d of oil production and 88% of its 123 million cu m/d of gas, according to data from industry group Argentine Oil and Gas Institute.
Avila said workers at two oil-loading terminals in Patagonia also walked off the job, interrupting crude shipments for domestic and international delivery.
Argentina exports about 10% of its crude production, and ships the rest domestically to refiners, most of them in the central region of Buenos Aires.
Oil companies have offered to raise wages by around 20%, half of the 40% that workers want in line with an annual inflation rate of 42% in May.
"There are workers earning 15,000 or 18,000 [Pesos per month] ($1,000-$1,200) who cannot make it to the end of the month," Avila said.
The national government will seek to negotiate a truce between oil companies and the unions at a meeting Tuesday in Buenos Aires.
In a statement cited by the Argentina press, the Chamber of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production, an industry group, said the strike will hit oil and gas production "in the entire country".
