Oil-service unions in Norway said wage negotiations may reach an impasse that could trigger a strike.
In the three-day talks starting on Tuesday for about 6,000 workers at companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger, unions will seek higher increases than they sought in separate negotiations for offshore-platform workers that partially broke down last week, said the Industry Energy union, which represents about 90% of the oil-service workers.
“It’s always a little more demanding to obtain a bigger increase than others have gotten,” said union leader Leif Sande.
Unlike a strike by platform workers, an oil-service action would probably have no direct impact on oil and gas production, he added.
Customers are reducing spending in the oil-service industry, which covers work from well maintenance to subsea equipment and platform design. Companies such as Statoil , which operates more than 70% of the country’s oil and gas output, are focusing on higher returns after rising costs ate away at profits over the past decade.
Two of three unions for Norwegian offshore-platform workers, who are covered by a separate collective-bargaining agreement, last week broke off talks with employers, raising the risk of a new walkout two years after the country’s longest oil- worker strike.
The 2012 action reduced Norway’s production until the government used its power to intervene as companies threatened a staff lockout that would have shut output entirely.
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