by Gwladys Fouche and Nora Buli
OSLO, July 5 (Reuters) – Some workers in Norway’s oil and gas sector went on strike on Tuesday, a move that could see the country’s gas exports plummet by nearly 60% in the coming days and exacerbate the rise in prices.
By Saturday, Norwegian natural gas exports could be cut by 1.117 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, or about 56%, while oil deliveries could fall by 341,000 barrels according to the NOG, the employers’ federation of the sector.
Norway is Europe’s second-largest energy supplier after Russia and demand for its oil and gas has risen further since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in late February. The closure of the Nordstream 1 gas pipeline for ten days from July 11 is expected to add to market tensions.
Result: the price of gas deliverable at 24 hours jumped by almost 16% on Tuesday. That of the barrel of Brent however fell by more than 1% around 12:00 GMT, weighed down by fears of recession.
Audun Ingvartsen, general secretary of the Lederne union, said the strike was aimed at putting pressure on employers for wage increases to offset the impact of inflation on purchasing power.
“Our goal is for employers to talk to us and listen to their employees,” he said.
The Norwegian government can intervene to put an end to a strike movement in exceptional circumstances, but the Ministry of Labor told Reuters it had no comment to make on the current movement.
“In accordance with the process for resolving wage disputes in Norway, it is the responsibility of the social partners to find a solution to any dispute,” said Deputy Minister Maria Schumacher Walberg.
The strike movement began at 00:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on three hydrocarbon fields (Gudrun, Oseberg South and Oseberg East) and should extend to those of Kristin, Heidrun and Aasta Hansteen on Wednesday. A seventh field, Tyrihans, will also have to be closed on Wednesday because its production is handled by that of Kristin.
A further extension of the movement planned by Saturday will result in the shutdown of pipelines and an additional part of production capacity, explained the NOG, which estimates the loss of turnover linked to the movement at 1.8 billion crowns (about 175 million euros) per day.
Members of Lederne on Tuesday rejected a draft wage agreement negotiated by employers and union delegates, which provided for increases of 4% to 4.5%. Inflation in Norway reached 5.7% year on year in May.
The other unions in the sector have validated the project and will not stop working. (With Victoria Klesty, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Nicolas Delame)