Norway’s offshore drilling rig and floating platform unions have entered state-mediated wage negotiations to prevent a broader labour dispute from affecting the country’s oil and gas sector.
The talks involve Styrke, SAFE, and DSO. The unions said more than 600 members could begin strike action if no agreement is reached. The wage agreement covers about 7,500 workers in total, and the unions have warned that the action could expand if talks fail.
The first phase of any strike would affect the Transocean Encourage drilling rig, the Linus rig operated by Odfjell Technology, the AKOFS Seafarer well intervention vessel, and Equinor’s Gullfaks B platform.
The negotiations are taking place while a separate offshore labour dispute involving oil service companies remains under way. Employees directly hired by oil companies were removed from the dispute earlier this month after unions reached a wage deal on 5 June, avoiding production stoppages.
Workers employed by oil service companies began strike action on 15 June after negotiations with Offshore Norge broke down. The initial stoppage affected ten service providers: SLB, DOF, Halliburton, Weatherford, Tios, DeepOcean, Subsea 7, Cactus, Vetco Gray Scandinavia, and Baker Hughes.
The conflict later widened after Offshore Norge extended the stoppage notice under the well service agreement. The notice now covers 1,272 of SAFE’s roughly 1,770 members under the contract.
Offshore Norge said the dispute could have a larger impact on production in the coming days. It said output losses from the service strike could reach about 12,000 boepd this week and potentially rise above 120,000 boepd after mid-July if the stoppage continues.
Production losses have already started. Aker BP shut down the Tambar field in the North Sea because of the ongoing labour dispute. The field produced about 7,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025.
