Norway oil strike escalation may threaten production in six fields

A strike among offshore oil workers in Norway’s Johan Sverdrup oilfield threatened overall production with a total output of 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) due to wage disputes, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said on Friday.

Norway’s labor union Lederne said on Wednesday that it would escalate the action from October 4 after dozens of workers went on strike in western Europe’s largest oilfield.

The NOG said the strike could force operations to halt in the Equinor-operated Gudrun, Gina Krog, Kvitebjoern fields, and the Neptune Energy-operated Gjoea field.

The strike could halt production at the associated Equinor’s Valemon and Wintershall DEA’s Vega fields, it added.

Lederne plans to take a total of 126 union members on strike, including 43 workers at Sverdrup on Monday after state-mediated wage talks with NOG failed.

Despite this, Equinor said it that it would still maintain at its 470,000 boepd production.

Meanwhile, two larger offshore worker unions, Industri Energi and Safe, have agreed to new wage deals and will not go on strike.