North Sea Strike Ballot Threatens a Third of UK Oil and Gas
More than 160 Apache offshore workers have backed industrial action that could begin later this month, Unite says, affecting the Forties and Beryl fields. The union warns the Charlie platform could be brought to a standstill and the Forties pipeline system, which handles almost a third of Britain’s oil and gas, could go down. It lands on a week in which the average price of diesel reached a record £2 a litre.
The dispute is about a 4% offer. Apache says its offshore staff “already place them among the highest earners in the UK” on a rota averaging 153 working days a year; its parent company reported $1.4 billion of after-tax profit on $9.2 billion of revenue last year. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said the union “will not tolerate unacceptable pay offers”, and the industrial officer Stevie Davies said disruption “would have a direct hit on the Forties pipeline and potentially severely affect the UK’s fuel supplies”. Apache says it has contingency plans and expects no effect on other producers. There is a recent precedent for settlement: Unite called off strikes at Neo Next this summer after a deal worth more than £4,000 on the package. What makes this one matter beyond the rigs is the timing. Diesel is already at a record, the G7 has agreed to release up to a hundred million barrels of emergency crude and diesel after Donald Trump threatened to cut off American supply, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. A Forties shutdown would arrive on top of all three. No strike dates have been set, and Ineos, which operates the pipeline, has not commented. Watch for the dates.