Norway's offshore fields avert shutdown risk after oil workers get hike in basic pay

Norwegian oil workers struck a wage deal with employers on Tuesday, averting the outbreak of a strike that would have cut production by 440,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boed), the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) announced.

Altogether nine offshore fields had been at risk of a shutdown in case of a strike, the industry group announced ahead of the negotiations. An outage would have corresponded to about 11% of the daily output from Western Europe's largest producer of petroleum.

Workers will on average get a 3.2 per cent increase in pay, in line with what's earlier been obtained by two other labour unions, NOG said. The Lederne union said however that it expected its members to obtain further gains in upcoming talks with their respective companies while confirming that the threat of a strike had been averted.

The union had planned to strike at Neptune Energy's Gjoea field, Ikea's Draugen, Aker BP's Ivar Aasen and Equinor's Kristin, Oseberg East and Gudrun fields. In addition, production would have had to shut at Equinor's Tyrihans, as well as at the Maria and Vega fields, both operated by Wintershall DEA. 

(With inputs from agencies.)