Olivia Woods
As a result of Norway’s intervention in an oil and gas strike that threatened to worsen Europe’s energy crisis, European gas prices decreased from their four-month highs on Wednesday.
The European benchmark for natural gas trading, the Dutch TTF hub, last saw its front-month gas price trade 2.5 percent down at 161 euros (US$164.6) per megawatt-hour. It briefly rose beyond 178 euros per megawatt-hour in the previous session, the highest since early March.
“Compulsory wage arbitration” was recommended by Norway’s government late on Tuesday to effectively put an end to the industrial action by offshore employees.
“The announced escalation has critical implications in the current situation, both in relation to the energy crisis and the geopolitical situation we’re facing with war in Europe,” said Minister of Labour, Marte Mjos Persen in a statement.
Under Norway’s legislation, the government can step in to force both sides of a labour dispute to meet with a wage board, which will make a decision.
“The parties themselves are generally responsible for finding a solution in such instances. But when the conflict could result in such far-reaching societal impacts for all of Europe, I have no other choice than to intervene in the conflict,” said Persen.
Norway’s government said that due to the number of strikes that had been announced, it was feared that the country would lose more than half of its everyday gas exports by the weekend.
Both the Lederne trade union and Norway’s Oil and Gas Association have now agreed to end the strike due to the genera proposed wage board.
Original source material for this article taken from here
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