By Renju Jose and Florence Tan
SYDNEY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Australia’s labour regulator has issued an order allowing a workers’ union to check with employees about whether to go on strike at Chevron’s Wheatstone and Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.
The Fair Work Commission in the order dated Thursday said the union can hold a protected action ballot of employees on any decisions over an industrial action.
Chevron and Woodside Energy Group have been holding talks with unions to avert threatened strikes over pay and conditions at Australian facilities that together supply about 10% of the LNG market.
Chevron did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. The union, Offshore Alliance, declined to comment. On Thursday, it said it had not reached an agreement with Chevron on several issues including pay.
Any industrial action would disrupt Australia’s LNG exports and increase competition for the super-chilled fuel, forcing Asian buyers to outbid European buyers to attract LNG cargoes.
Dutch and British wholesale gas prices retreated on Thursday from a two-month intraday high the previous day after concerns faded over tight LNG supply due to the possible strikes.
Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said the risk of strikes stopping production across the LNG plants for more than a week was exceptionally low.
“This is all part of union negotiations. While there will be loud rhetoric threatening large production outages as the unions and LNG companies test their positions, it is unlikely global supply will actually be impacted materially,” he said.
Industrial action in Australia, including strikes or work stoppages, must be approved by the Fair Work Commission before going to members for a vote. Protected action ballots are secret ballots that give employees the chance to vote on whether or not they want to initiate protected industrial action.
After a successful ballot, the union can decide whether to go ahead with action, which must take place within 30 days. Employers are given notice beforehand.
About 99% of workers at offshore platforms that supply gas to the Woodside-operated North West Shelf LNG plant, Australia’s biggest LNG plant, backed industrial action in a vote whose results were made public on Wednesday. But the unions have not yet called for action there.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jacqueline Wong)
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