Six Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields were shut on Oct. 5 as more workers joined a strike over pay, companies and union officials said.

The strike will cut Norway’s total output capacity by just over 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), or about 8% of total production, according to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG).

UPDATE:

Norway Strike Could Shut Giant Johan Sverdrup Oil Field

The dispute began on Sept. 30 when a group of 43 workers organized by the Lederne union went on strike after wage talks failed between the union and the NOG, which represents oil and gas companies.

The escalation Oct. 5 added 126 union members to the strike, taking the total to 169 out of the 1,003 offshore workers Lederne represents.

Norway regularly pumps just over 4 million boe/d, half in the form of crude and other liquids and half from natural gas, making it a major global energy supplier.

Equinor said it had closed four of its fields, while the Lederne trade union said two fields operated by Neptune Energy and Wintershall Dea were also shut.

Output from Johan Sverdrup, the North Sea's largest producing oil field, was unaffected by the strike, Equinor said.

Neptune and Wintershall were not immediately available for comment.

“There is no solution in sight,” said a spokesman for the NOG.

“Employers are still showing no willingness to meet our demands, thus triggering the escalation,” Lederne trade union chief Audun Ingvartsen said in a statement.

The shut downs helped to boost global oil prices Oct. 5, with Brent rising 4.0% by 12:07 GMT.

The strike hit Equinor’s Gudrun, Gina Krog and Kvitebjoern fields, as well as Kvitebjoern’s satellite Valemon Field, and Neptune’s Gjoea Field and its Vega satellite field, operated by Wintershall Dea.

Close to 60% of the cuts were natural gas, with crude oil and NGL making up the rest, a Reuters calculation based on official Norwegian output data showed.

In July, the combined crude oil output from the six fields that were shut on Oct. 5 stood at 79,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), while natural gas production amounted to 194,000 boe/d, according to Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) data.

NGL from the six fields amounted to about 62,000 bbl/d, the data showed.

Lederne said it was seeking better financial terms for members and wanted the offshore wage agreement to also cover workers at onshore remote-controlled rooms.

Equinor and other oil companies have been looking into ways to remotely control production at offshore fields, to cut costs.

The NOG said Lederne’s demand fell outside the scope of the offshore wage agreement.