Norwegian Strike Averted

The Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (Noga) representing offshore employers has hammered out a deal with the country's Safe labour union after talks that ran into the early morning, it announced on February 16, averting a strike that could have disrupted Norwegian oil and gas exports.

The two sides had agreed to hold mediations until 00:00 on February 16, to settle a dispute over pay issues for personnel at onshore plants. But negotiations dragged on for a further five hours, Noga said. They have reached a framework agreement that will last two years, under which worker wages will be negotiated at a local level with individual employers. 

Safe noted that seniority supplements had been agreed for employees at Esso Norge, the local subsidiary of ExxonMobil. Noga added that the union had brought up local issues that "should not have been raised in these key negotiations," making the talks "unnecessarily complicated."

State-owned oil company Equinor also confirmed on February 16 that no workers would down tools at its onshore Mongstad terminal. Earlier, Equinor and Noga had warned that operations at various onshore and offshore facilities could face disruptions as a result of the industrial action, including those at the Troll gas field in the North Sea.