UK gas prices hit three-month high as Norway workers strike
The European gas crisis has intensified after one of Norway’s biggest operators was forced to shut three oil and gas fields after workers went on strike.
UK gas prices reached three-month highs on Tuesday as the energy company Equinor said that the fields on Norway’s continental shelf, which produce the equivalent of 89,000 barrels of oil a day, would suspend production.
Norway’s oil workers’ union, Lederne, said the strike would extend to three further sites, affecting 333,000 oil equivalent barrels a day, including 264,000 in natural gas.
If the strike escalates, it could affect more than 1bn barrel equivalents a day or nearly 60% of Norway’s exports from Saturday.
Workers are demanding a pay increase to handle rising inflation, which has been triggered in part by a jump in oil and gas prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Britain’s day-ahead gas price reached a three-month high of 272.5p a therm on Tuesday, up 17.9%. Gas for delivery prices for next month rose 7% at 302p a therm.
The Norwegian strikes have ramped up the squeeze on supplies after a cut in gas coming into the EU from Russia.
European nations have been scrambling to fill their gas storage sites before the winter for fear that Russia will cut off supplies altogether.
Germany has drafted laws that allow the government to take stakes in companies affected by the rise in gas prices. Uniper, which owns gas plants in Germany and the UK, is in talks with the German government over a bailout.
In the UK, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been shoring up Britain’s energy supplies before winter. Britain sources most of its gas from a combination of the North Sea, Norway and imports of liquefied natural gas from the rest of the world, including the US.
The rise
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