Battered by Crude Collapse, Norway Now Faces Risk of Oil Strikes

May 31, 2016 Share Print 0

Norway’s oil companies and the industry’s biggest union had set aside two days to negotiate over wages for offshore workers. Instead, the talks broke down after less than a minute.

The failure shows the width of the gap that will need to be bridged in state-backed mediation if Norway, western Europe’s biggest producer of oil and gas, is to avoid strikes that would deepen the crisis provoked by the collapse of crude prices since 2014.

The breakdown of wage talks for offshore workers on production platforms, where a strike would have immediate consequences on output, comes after negotiations stranded earlier this month for workers on oil-rigs and onshore supply bases. The risk of several strikes comes as Norway’s economy is already suffering more than during the financial crisis, with offshore investments set to drop for a third consecutive year in 2017 and about 40,000 jobs lost in the oil industry.

Bloomberg

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Craig Erlam

Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA

Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.