2023-08-28 02:42:56
par Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY, Aug 28 (Archyde.com) – Workers at one of Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Australia, a major exporting nation, will decide on Monday whether to allow their unions to appeal to the strike, after the company’s other two facilities voted in favor of possible action.
The Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities in Western Australia – as well as the Woodside Energy Group projects
WDS.AX in the same region – account for one tenth of global supply. Any social movement at Chevron could disrupt production in Australia, the world’s largest exporter of this superchilled fuel.
Last week, more than 99% of the roughly 450 workers at Chevron’s Gorgon LNG facility, one of the nation’s largest, and the Wheatstone downstream processing facility voted to allow unions to launch strikes (link) if necessary.
Voting results on the Wheatstone offshore platform are expected on Monday afternoon.
If Chevron workers allow it, the Offshore Alliance, which includes the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australian Workers’ Union, will have the mandate, but not the obligation, to take industrial action, which could range from a brief work stoppage to the refusal to load LNG on tankers.
If they decide to take industrial action, unions must notify Chevron seven working days in advance.
The Offshore Alliance said on Monday industrial action was “about to begin”. Unions are calling for higher wages and changes to working conditions, including rules making it harder to change working hours.
“It is increasingly likely that a deal will be reached after we blocked Chevron’s LNG exports and Chevron lost billions of dollars in revenue,” the unions said in a social media post. .
Chevron said Monday it would put measures in place to safeguard supplies. “We will also continue to work through the settlements process to find solutions that are in the best interests of employees and the company,” the company added.
The possibility of industrial action provided some support to LNG prices. Energy analyst Saul Kavonic said on Friday Chevron could face “low-scale” labor action, but that was unlikely to significantly disrupt supply.
The Chevron dispute comes after Woodside resolved (link) a similar issue at its Northwest Shelf LNG facility in Western Australia.
North West Shelf offshore rig workers had voted in favor of strike action (link), but later reached a settlement with the company.
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