Large Norway oilfield to shut as workers go on strike

Oil workers organised by Norway's Lederne labour union will go on strike on Wednesday following a breakdown of wage talks, cutting Norway's crude output capacity by up to 470,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), the union and employers said.

The strike among 43 workers will trigger a shutdown of Equinor's Johan Sverdrup oilfield, the largest oil field in Western Europe, Lederne and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said. Sverdrup's technical production capacity was increased to 470,000 barrels of oil per day in April from an original 440,000 bpd.

The field's output has recently been limited to 415,500 bpd however as part of Norway's agreement with OPEC and other producing nations to curb output until the end of 2020. Members of two other unions, Industri Energi and Safe, separately said they will not go on strike.

If all three labour unions had gone on strike, output would have been cut by some 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), NOG said in advance of the negotiations. NOG negotiated with the unions on behalf of the Norwegian oil industry.

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