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Oil

Norway government calls talks to end oil strike

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Norway government calls talks to end oil strike
Photo: Marit Hommedal/Scanpix (File)

Norway's government on Friday called talks between employers and striking unions after the energy industry ordered a lockout next week that threatens to halt output in Western Europe's top oil exporter.

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The lockout was announced almost two weeks into the strike by more than 700 North Sea oil workers over pensions which, according to employers' group OLF, has led to losses worth tens of millions of euros a day.

The labour ministry convened a meeting for the parties to the dispute at 6.00pm (1600 GMT) on Friday, the government said in an online statement.

State-owned energy company Statoil has said the lockout will start Monday at 2200 GMT and "will halt all production" on Norway's continental shelf, where about 50 companies operate, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

The lockout will mean 6,515 workers covered by offshore pay agreements will not be permitted to enter their workplaces as of Tuesday, OLF said.

Statoil said it expected a shortfall in production of around 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, costing 520 million kroner (€69.3 million) per day.

The unions Industri Energi and SAFE launched the strike on June 24th.

The dispute centres on employers cutting a pension add-on introduced in 1998 for workers who retire at 62, three years ahead of the general age for oil workers and five years ahead of Norway's official retirement age.

The unions have branded the lockout "cowardly" and insisted their demands are legitimate.

At the Friday meeting, the parties will be invited to return to the negotiating table, SAFE chief Hilde Marit Rysset was quoted as telling the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

Norway is the world's eighth largest oil exporter and second largest gas exporter. In 2004, the last strike of oil workers in Norway lasted one week.

Despite Norway's troubles, oil prices slid Friday, with Brent North Sea crude diving below $100 as global economic worries were rekindled following interest rate cuts by central banks in Europe and China, analysts said.

Brent crude for delivery in August dropped $1.56 to $99.14 a barrel in London. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for August lost $1.45 to stand at $85.77 a barrel.

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