About 15% of Norway's offshore oil and gas workers are members of the Lederne labor union that's on strike, according to Reuters. They are demanding wage increases to deal with rising inflation, which hit 5.7% in May — the highest since 1988, according to Norway's statistics agency.
Lederne union members voted down a proposed wage agreement last week, according to Reuters. Other oil and gas labor unions in the country have accepted the deal and are not on strike.
The Lederne strike could deepen an energy crisis in Western Europe, as Norway is the largest producer of oil and gas in the region. The country supplies 20% to 25% of the EU's and UK's natural-gas demand, according to Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
The strike is expected to cut Norway's gas production by 13% and 130,000 barrels of oil by Wednesday, said the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. A planned escalation by the union on Saturday could cut about a quarter of Norway's natural-gas output and 15% of its oil production, according to a Reuters calculation.
The strike comes at a time of tight natural-gas supplies for Europe as Russian state gas giant Gazprom has already cut gas flows to Germany via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 60% from last month, citing an equipment hold-up in Canada as a result of sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The pipeline also supplies other countries in Europe.
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