The rolling 24-hour stoppages at Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in western Australia being caused by Australia’s Offshore Alliance union continued for a second day Friday, as uncertainty increased over global supplies of the super-chilled fuel.
On Sunday, an unnamed Offshore Alliance representative said to Reuters, “Another 24-hour stoppage has been applied across all 3 facilities with 15 percent of Downstream members enacting rolling stoppages/bans after midday today.”
The representative added that it is expected that the strike will run until 8AM on Monday, (00:00 GMT), and that there would be meetings held “twice a day everyday,” to make further decisions regarding future full-day strikes.
The strikes had been scheduled to continue until the end of this month however the Offshore Alliance, a coalition of two unions, said on Saturday that their intention now is to extend the industrial action.
On Monday, Chevron said that it had received notices of work stoppages until Oct. 14 from the union.
Strikes at the Wheatstone and Gorgon LNG facilities, which account for more than 5% of global supply, began ramping up last week. In the strikes, workers are limiting operational activities, such as the restarting of equipment, the mooring and unloading of tankers and other vessels, and the performance of analysis work in laboratories.
Chevron has asked the industrial tribunal in Australia intervene to bring the strikes to an end. It is expected there will be a hearing on the issue by the tribunal next week and it will issue its decision shortly thereafter.
Presently non-union workers are maintaining operations at the company’s facilities. The Gorgon and Wheatstone plants have about 500 union members which work at them.
Prices for LNG on the global market have been rising due to the potential decrease in exports at one of the world’s largest suppliers, especially due to the crisis hitting just as intense competition ramps up for supplies due to the seasonal demand in the northern hemisphere. At the TTF hub in the Netherlands, gas futures surged 12% Friday after the strike began.
