[seadog] Norway does it right.. again

Monday June 17, 3:08 am Eastern Time 
Norway Oil Unions, Employers Reach Deal And Avert Strike
OSLO -(Dow Jones)- Norwegian offshore oil workers and employers reached an
agreement early Monday, averting a strike by about 500 union members that
could have shut down a significant part of Norway 's natural gas production.
Two key unions accepted a 4.7% wage raise and an agreement to let oil
workers seek a new two-week on and four-week off rotation system. Oil
workers spend two weeks at sea, working 12 hour days, and then having
extended time off on land.
The 18,000-member Norwegian oil and petrochemical union NOPEF and the 5,500-
member Norwegian Federation of Oil Unions, threatened a strike over the
vacation issue.
The strike could have cut output by 150,000 barrels of oil a day, as well as
50 million standard cubic meters of gas, with a total estimated value of
around 80 million kroner ($1=NOK7.8375) a day, officials from the employers'
organizaion OLF said last week.
The threatened strike would have affected the Troll A, Jotun A and B,
Valhall, and Ula fields in the North Sea, and the companies affected would
be Statoil ASA , ExxonMobil Corp. unit Esso Norge AS, BP PLC unit BP Amoco
Norge UA, Universal Sodexho, and Prosafe Drilling Services AS (Y.PSF).
Norway 's average daily oil production in April was 3.157 million bbl, while
average daily production for natural gas liquids was 181,000 bbl, the latest
figures from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate show.
The compromise allows members in each company to separately negotiate there
so-called 2/4 rotation with their employers by an Oct. 1 deadline. The
current rotation is two weeks on, three off, two on, and then four off.


  -By Xueling Lin, Dow Jones Newswires; 45 33111524;
xueling.lin@xxxxxxxxxxxx


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