The Australian energy giant Woodside will try Thursday to relaunch negotiations with its employees, in order to avoid a strike which worries in a world market, already weakened by the conflict in Ukraine.
The prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) soared in Europe on Wednesday after the announcement of a call for a strike on the offshore platforms of Woodside in Western Australia, which alone supply more than 10% of the global supply of LNG each month. The Dutch TTF futures contract, considered the European benchmark for natural gas, soared nearly 27% to 39.24 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), shortly after peaking at 43.545 euros per MWh, a highest in almost two months.
Although Europe has largely replenished its LNG stocks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, markets fear that shortages and strong demand in Asia will increase pressure on supplies in Europe. Woodside hopes to prevent the strike, but has already put in place a contingency plan to secure its supplies.
“We hope that it will not be necessary to activate this plan”, explains the group, which wants to resume negotiations in order to prevent any work stoppage scheduled for mid-August. Its American competitor Chevron is also facing a strike threat from the personnel of its offshore platforms in Western Australia at the call of the same powerful union, Australian Workers Union (AWU).
LNG exports estimated at “hundreds of millions of dollars” are at risk, the union warned. “So it’s in everyone’s best interest to get back to what people do best, providing quality gas to the world,” AWU spokesman Brad Gandy said in a statement.
If the negotiations fail the union will have to file a notice of seven days before the start of the movement. Last year, Prelude, the vast floating natural gas extraction and liquefaction complex controlled by the Anglo-Dutch group Shell, was affected by a 76-day strike, which cost the group a loss of revenue of some 650 million US dollars.