Workers at Australian LNG export facilities of Japanese energy firm Inpex have voted to escalate the strike action at all three sites to work stoppages of up to 8 hours per day, up from 4 hours currently, from June 11, which could further tighten the global gas markets amid the crisis.
Dissatisfied with how Inpex has handled months-long negotiations over pay and work conditions, the Offshore Alliance trade union said early on Monday that “We’re ready to step up and take INPEX on, and are ramping up the 4-hour stoppages and bans which commenced last Wednesday.”
“The Tokyo fat cats have effectively declared war on their Australian oil and gas workforce,” Offshore Alliance said in a Facebook post.
“For every action there is a reaction. Last night, members endorsed work stoppages escalating to 8 hours per day, and we’ll be loading up a stack of work bans on Thursday,” the union said.
“INPEX went within a bees dick of losing 2 trains at ILNG yesterday and they won’t be so ‘lucky’ next time around.”
The industrial action that started on June 3 has already disrupted some LNG loadings at the Ichthys LNG project in recent days, raising market concerns that supply from Australia, currently the world’s second-largest LNG supplier with most Qatari output shut-in, could drop in the coming days and weeks.
LNG prices in Asia are 75% higher than they were before the war between the United States and Israel against Iran began at the end of February.
Qatar’s state firm QatarEnergy expects the damage to the Ras Laffan LNG complex, the world’s single largest LNG-producing facility, to cost it about $20 billion per year in lost revenue and to take up to five years to repair.
Any additional disruption, such as the strike in Australia, would add to the price pain for energy importers in Asia, the world’s largest LNG market. The Ichthys project has a capacity for 9.3 million tons per annum (mtpa) of liquefied gas.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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