Norwegian oil and gas workers start strike, cutting output

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.

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 told Reuters.

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 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. 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.