An open-ended strike in the Norwegian oil sector led Tuesday to the closing of yet another platform as the country's oil production plummeted by 370,000 barrels per day (bpd), with union members warning of worse to come.
"All production has halted on the Bravo platform in the Ekofisk field. We shut down the platform around midnight" (2200 GMT Monday), said Ingvar Solberg, a spokesman for the platform's operator, US group ConocoPhillips.
The Ekofisk Bravo platform normally produces nearly 60,000 bpd. Its closing followed the shut-down on Saturday of the Snorre platform, which usually pumps out about 310,000 bpd.
The shut-down of the two platforms has thus forced Norway, which is the world's third largest exporter of crude oil after Saudi Arabia and Russia, and which typically produces about three million bpd, to slash its production by 12.5 percent.
Norway's production was expected to tumble further late Wednesday when a third platform was expected to close its taps, bringing the country's lost output to 456,000 bpd.
US group Exxon Mobil has indicated it will cease production on its Ringhorne platform, which produces about 86,000 bpd, if the minority union OFS stands by its call for 16 additional workers to walk off the job to join more than 200 striking colleagues.
OFS claims to have a total of 5,500 members.
"Wednesday will be our last production day" on this platform, Exxon Mobil's Norwegian spokesman Jone Stangeland told.