Offshore oil workers from Brazil's oil multinational Petrobras have ended a five-day walkout but warned they may call a new, nationwide strike against the state-controlled company next month. Petrobras issued a statement saying the strike and a later work slowdown by refinery workers had not affected production levels.
The Norte Fluminense Oil Workers Union started a five-day strike at midnight Sunday, demanding workers' departure days from oil platforms be counted as paid work days. Petrobras offered overtime pay instead of the extra day off but this was rejected by the union.
The union represents workers on offshore production rigs in the Campos Basin, which accounts for 85% of Petrobras' crude output. Production fell in the early hours of the strike on Monday but Petrobras got output back to normal by early Tuesday after emergency crews were dispatched to platforms.
The walkout involved some 4.500 workers in the Campos basin. Petrobras, one of the world largest oil companies, pumps an average of 1.6 million barrels of crude a day.
Regional chapters of the unions will meet over the next few days leading up to a general meeting on July 25. At that time they will vote on whether to go ahead with a national strike planned for August 5 that would target production at offshore rigs, refineries and distribution centers.
"We are going to sit down today to discuss where we are weak and were we are strong so that when we go on strike with a broader action there won't be problems," said union director José Genivaldo Silva.
Mercopress
Show Comments (2)
Jerrydill
Bring it on
Petrobas Union employees are crazy to think that they can strike another deal. It didn’t hurt the company last time and it probably wont hurt the company next. The only way to sabotage the company would be to take it at the heart of the company. Off shore oil wells are only a small percentage of the companies revenues.
jon
Joao call your oil contacts
Petrobras we need your help in deep water!!!! 🙂 🙂
Wealth of oil in Arctic, report says
The Canadian Press
A new study suggests that the equivalent of 30 billion barrels of oil lie undiscovered underneath the sea ice and frigid waters of North America’s Arctic.
The report by the U.S. Geological Service has for the first time put some hard numbers behind the energy potential of the North and could add new urgency to the debate over control of those resources.
Most of the oil and gas lies in waters that Canada shares with the United States and Denmark, and which are subject to boundary disputes.
Most of it also lies offshore, presenting energy companies with tough challenges in bringing it to market.
The survey suggests that there is the equivalent of 412 billion barrels of oil throughout the Arctic, most of it off the coast of Russia.
That is more than twice the 173 billion barrels of oil thought to lie in Alberta’s oilsands.