UK union sets out strike plans at TotalEnergies fields starting Dec. 6

UK trade union Unite on Dec. 3 announced a series of strike dates for TotalEnergies' oil and gas facilities including 24-hour work stoppages starting Dec. 6 at the Elgin-Franklin and Culzean field clusters and the Shetland Gas Plant.

It was unclear to what extent the facilities would be able to continue operating, given many offshore workers are not members of Unite. The strike involves some 300 members of the union across seven facilities, including the onshore gas plant in the Shetland Islands, a conduit for West of Shetland flows. Any disruption would come at a time of high European gas and power prices, and particularly low levels of UK gas storage.

TotalEnergies reiterated it was "working with our contractor PBS to ensure the safe operation of our installations should industrial action go ahead."

PBS for its part said it was seeking the help of industrial relations service Acas to try and resolve the dispute.

The initial plans entail weekly 24-hour work stoppages by Unite members at the largest facilities: the Culzean gas field, the Elgin-Franklin gas and condensate complex, and the Shetland Gas plant, which processes gas from fields such as Laggan and Tormore. Any shutdown could potentially last longer than 24 hours due to the shutdown and restart process.

Culzean and Elgin-Franklin are sizeable providers of gas to the UK, with the Elgin-Franklin cluster also feeding the Forties crude oil stream, a constituent in Platts' Dated Brent benchmark.

More frequent work stoppages are planned at the lower-producing North Alwyn and Dunbar fields and the Gryphon floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

The union is embroiled in a dispute with TotalEnergies' service provider PBS (Ponticelli, Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services, Semco Maritime) relating to a standardization of terms following the start of new contracts for TotalEnergies workers in 2020, in turn reflecting the French major's 2018 purchase of Maersk Oil. Some redundancies are also being implemented.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Unite members at Ponticelli/Semco have given a resounding message to their employers following an overwhelming vote in favor of strike action. These workers do not deserve the treatment being meted out by these employers and refuse to allow this attack on their jobs, pay and conditions. This vote shows that they are prepared to fight back."

PBS director Andreas Christophersen said: "Despite our best efforts to avoid industrial action, we have not yet been able to reach an agreement. PBS made an enhanced offer and we were disappointed that it was not accepted, however we have requested that the unions join us in talks with Acas about starting a mediation process to bring the dispute to a conclusion. We will continue to work with our employees' representatives and the trade unions."

TotalEnergies is generally the largest producer in the UK North Sea, with 2020 production of over 200,000 b/d of oil equivalent on an equity basis and a weighting toward gas. It operates most of its own assets.