Norwegian oil refineries could close down production and petrol become scarce if a strike among government employees continues.
Offshore oil and gas production is not directly hit by the strike, but onshore ports and refineries stand to be affected as shipping pilots become unavailable.
“Within days we could be in a situation where we are closing down if we don’t see that we are able to get products out of Mongstad,” said Morten Eek, a spokesman for Statoil which operates the 250,000 barrels per day Mongstad refinery.
Norwegian state workers went on strike for the first time in decades a week ago after pay talks broke down, shutting schools, child care centres and other public institutions as well as affecting some shipping pilots.
Some 50,000 public sector workers are now on strike, up from from 30,000 a week ago.
Norway’s state-controlled oil and gas firm Statoil is preparing to close down production at Mongstad, near Bergen, as the firm has not been granted dispensation for using the pilots it needs for loading and unloading vessels smaller than 30,000 tonnes, which are normally used for transporting refined products such as petrol.
“We were not granted exemption for the strike on a general basis from yesterday. That means we will have to file for exemptions on the strike vessel by vessel, and that goes for all our activities where we have to take products from our ports, including Mongstad,”
“We have also started to prepare the organisation for the scenario where we would have to close down operations at Mongstad and Tjelbergodden (methanol plant),” he said, adding that Mongstad was still producing for storage.
Mongstad is Norway’s largest refinery and has an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes of crude oil.
The ExxonMobil-owned Slagen oil refinery near Oslo said it had received dispensation for pilots for crude ships going into the refinery, but that the strike impacted outgoing deliveries which could strangle fuel deliveries to other Norwegian ports.
The production capacity at Slagen is about 6 million tonnes per year, and about 60 percent of the output is exported.
A spokesman for Norwegian petrol station owner Statoil Fuel and Retail said the strike could mean its stations may need to ration fuel to customers.
“With ship captains on strike, we are unable to supply our terminals with large vessels and the small vessels are not enough,” said a “So with no large scale supply, if the strike continues, we could indeed be forced to curtail sales by the end of next week. We are now studying options for rationing.”
