Currently, more than 300 workers are on a strike which has lasted over the past three months. Companies affected by the strike include Statoil, Norsk Hydro, Transocean, Odfjell, Dolphin, PGS and Smedvig.
In a statement NOPEF head Leif Sande said, “We weren’t met on our demands for greater equality between oil services and other offshore agreements. The union demanded an average wage increase of 6.5%. The employers offered 2.9%.”
“The union also demanded a two weeks on/four weeks off rotation system followed by most other oil workers [around the world],” added Sande.
Wages are not the only issue which the strikers want settled.
“[We] are striking over job security. With rig owners hiring contract workers outside the country, the rigs are filled with foreign contractors at the same time there are several hundred jobless ex-Norwegian workers,” said Bjoern Tjessem, the Deputy Leader of the Federation of Oil Workers’ Union (OFS).
“With no plans to sit down at the negotiation table, the strike could last well into the new year. It’s deadlocked,” added Tjessem.
Mediator Gunnar Lind, in an interview with the Norwegian NTB news services, said, “I put forward a proposal, but it didn’t lay the foundation for further negotiations because NOPEF rejected it. The parties were far from an agreement when negotiations broke down at 2am Friday morning [8 October].”
The Norwegian government believes the strike could reduce the country’s daily production levels, which are already the third highest in the world. Currently, Norway produces around 3.3 million bpd. According to the Norwegian Shipowners Association believes the strike will hurt the “oil companies, rig owners and oil supply companies” to the tune of US$119 million.
In a statement the Association said, “Based on the price of oil over the relevant period and the loss of future income, the real loss will be equivalent to approximately half the value of the lost oil production.”
“While current production will be cut by a total of 55,000 bpd at the Glitne and Varg fields, the strike will also delay development drilling at Ekofisk, Oseberg, Troll, Valhall and Statfjord fields, preventing planned production of a further 150,000 bpd,” it added.
On a separate note, the US Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has recently released the latest cost of Hurricane Ivan upon the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) oil and gas sector.
In a statement the MMS said, “About 475,000 bopd and about 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day remain shut-in [and], based on preliminary information supplied by operators, perhaps as much as 150,000 bopd and 1 bcf per day of the shut-in production may be back on line by the end of October.”
“For the longer term, about 96% of the normal daily GOM production, which is approximately 1.7 million bopd and approximately 12.3 bcf per day of gas, should be back on line within 6 months,” it added.
One hundred and fifty platforms and 10,000 miles of pipelines were in the path of the hurricane. There are 4,000 structures and 33,000 miles of pipelines in the GOM.
Based upon data provided by the companies affected by the ravages of Ivan and other storms, the MMS revealed seven platforms were destroyed and six platforms had major damage. Furthermore, five drilling rigs suffered major damage.
“Major damage examples include bent structural supports, rig derricks collapsed, production vessels and piping destroyed, helicopter landing decks overturned, and living quarters collapsed,” said the MMS.
“Pipelines in mud slide areas off the mouth of the Mississippi River experienced failures and will take a significant effort to locate and repair because the pipelines are buried by as much as 20 to 30 feet of mud. Overall, twelve large diameter pipelines (10” or larger) were damaged in Federal waters,” it added. Major damage, according to the MMS, does not include the loss of handrails or deck grating.
