UK North Sea workers to strike from 6 December: Update

Adds details on scope of production impact

About 300 workers will take industrial action from 6 December until "late February" at North Sea oil and gas assets operated by Total Energies, the Unite union said today.

The workers are employed by Ponticelli and Semco Maritime, two of three companies in the Aberdeen-based PBS oil service consortium. The firms provide technicians and other workers for platforms and facilities. Triggered by a dispute over pay terms, the action will include a permanent overtime ban and a series of strike days. More than 90pc of staff polled voted to strike.

It is unclear the extent to which, and after how many strike days, the action would cut into TotalEnergies' North Sea output.

But Unite in mid-November said that "if 300 workers take strike action, it will impact production". TotalEnergies said at the time that it could not comment until strike details were revealed. The firm was not immediately available for comment today.

The strike action will affect work on the TotalEnergies contract, which Unite said covers the Alisa floating storage and offloading unit, the Culzean, Elgin-Franklin, Dunbar and North Alwyn fields, the Gryphon floating production, storage and offloading vessel and the Shetland gas-fired plant.

This suggests that all of TotalEnergies' production could be affected. Action at the Shetland plant could shut in fields upstream that supply the plant, including Laggan and Tormore. And in the northern North Sea, several other fields feed some of the listed assets (see table).

Gas production at UK fields operated by TotalEnergies on 16 September 2020-15 September 2021 — the latest available data — was 447bn ft³, equal to 12.65bn m³, or about 34.70mn m³/d, UK Oil and Gas Authority data show. More than 70pc of this came from Culzean and Elgin-Franklin, which are primarily gas-producing assets.

Overall UK gas production averaged 80.3mn m³/d over the period (see graph).

Negotiations have been taking place throughout the fourth quarter.

PBS director Andreas Christophersen confirmed an agreement had not yet been struck, but suggested further arbitration could still take place.

"PBS made an enhanced offer and we were disappointed that it was not accepted. However, we have requested that the unions join us in talks with [the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service] about starting a mediation process to bring the dispute to a conclusion," Christophersen said. "We will continue to work with our employees' representatives and the trade unions."

By Ruxandra Iordache and Paul Martin

UK gas production mn m³/d