A strike declared in Australia could explode the natural gas market in Europe
The union representing workers at two Chevron LNG projects in Australia has rejected the company's offer of new wage conditions and is preparing to launch industrial action next week unless a better offer is presented.
"The voting results demonstrate that Chevron is out of touch with OA members and has not listened to a single word in discussions with members, representatives and the Offshore Alliance," said the Alliance, a coalition of two unions representing workers in the energy industry, in a Facebook post quoted by Reuters .
Chevron, for its part, said: "The vote [rejecting the offer] was part of the bargaining process and an important step that allowed employees to share their views."
The US multinational operates the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects off Australia. The two projects together account for around 5% of global LNG supply. Chevron has been engaged in a dispute over wages and working conditions with its workers for weeks, while sector operator Woodside, which operates Australia's largest LNG plant, the North West Shelf, has managed to strike a deal and avert a strike.
Due to the controversies, gas prices, especially in Europe, have become particularly nervous over the past two weeks, highlighting the precarious balance between supply and demand for liquefied natural gas. For the moment, European demand is relatively low, as stocks are full and consumption is low in the summer months. But a strike in Gorgon and Wheatstone would no doubt lead to a temporary spike in prices just as Asian shoppers begin to step up their winter-buying efforts.
In Europe, some countries are running out of purchases, furthermore the Dutch TTF market, where gas is traded, would undergo an upward push, also because Australian gas is a gas for the EU, which has cut the Russian one.
If Chevron and the unions fail to agree, workers at Gorgon and Wheatstone will begin the strike on September 7 and continue through September 14, with work stoppages and bans on certain jobs up to 11 hours a day.
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The article A strike declared in Australia could blow up the Natural Gas market in Europe comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/uno-sciopero-dichiarato-in-australia-puo-far-esplodere-il-mercato-del-gas-naturale-in-europa/ on Sat, 02 Sep 2023 15:26:04 +0000.