Norway oil industry maintenance workers launch strike

A Norwegian union representing offshore oil workers announced a strike on Monday (June 15, 2026) by maintenance workers after failing to reach a collective wage agreement regarding the maintenance and servicing of oil wells, which the Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (SAFE) said had been falling behind other sectors in both wages and working conditions with an employer’s organisation over the weekend.

The Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (SAFE) said 154 oil service workers would go on strike as of 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Monday (June 15, 2026), and another 224 would join on Thursday (June 18, 2026).

“We cannot accept this development and, ahead of this year’s settlement, we had clear expectations that the trend had to be reversed,” Martin Skogland of SAFE said in a statement. Elisabeth Brattebo Fenne, Chief negotiator at Offshore Norge, said “We are disappointed that no agreement was reached with SAFE” after forging an agreement with another union, Styrke, for oil service. The industry group said that the two wage proposals covered around 7,200 workers together and that the unions had been presented with “identical agreements”.

Norway, the largest oil and gas producer in Europe excluding Russia, has gone into overdrive to supply the European continent, whose energy vulnerability has been exposed by the wars in West Asia. In early May, Norwegian energy giant Equinor announced record oil and gas production of 2.3 million barrels of oil-equivalent per day for the first quarter, along with an 18% rise in first-quarter net profit to $3.1 billion.