A Norwegian offshore managers' union agreed Oct. 9 to immediately end a 10-day strike thought to have reduced the country's oil and gas production by around 8%, after successful mediation efforts intended to avert a further escalation, the union said.
The breakthrough came after a day of talks aimed at resolving a dispute over pay and conditions that had threatened to escalate and shut down almost one-quarter of production in Western Europe's largest oil and gas producing country.
In a statement, the Lederne, or "Leaders," trade union said it had achieved its main goal, of securing collective pay agreements for workers whose functions are moved from offshore platforms to onshore control rooms as a result of technological upgrades. Norwegian companies such as Aker BP have been at the forefront of efforts to reduce offshore workforce numbers, and thus costs, with the aid of technology.
The strike looked like it would reduce Norway's oil and gas production by almost 1 million b/d of oil equivalent from Oct. 14 after state-controlled Equinor said it would lack the staff to safely operate its flagship Johan Sverdrup oil field, which achieved output levels of nearly 380,000 b/d in July.
Industry group Norwegian Oil & Gas, which handles pay negotiations on behalf of oil and gas operating companies, confirmed in a brief statement an agreement had been reached and the strike brought to an end.
The fields already shut down due to the strike accounted for about 330,000 b/d of oil equivalent of production, nearly half of this being in the form of oil, mainly from small or mid-sized fields, with the remainder of the output being gas.
The fields shut down already include a number that feed the Troll crude stream, namely Gjoa, Kvitebjorn, Valemon and Vega, with the other affected fields being Gina Krog and Gudrun.
The union "finally got an agreement which means that ... members who work in control rooms on land will be treated the same as members from other unions," Lederne said.
