Bloomberg: Norwegian Oil Industry Faces Mediation to Avoid Output Halt

Norwegian oil workers and employers will start mediation talks tomorrow to bridge differences and avoid a strike that threatens to halt about 115,000 barrels of oil a day from fields operated by Exxon Mobil Corp., GDF Suez (GSZ) and Statoil ASA. (STL)

The mediation deadline is set for midnight tomorrow and involves two unions that broke off wage talks last month over pensions, according to the parties involved. Talks frequently run beyond the deadline.

“We naturally hope for a solution,” Sverre Simen Hov, a spokesman for the Norwegian Organization of Managers and Executives, said by phone on June 13. It’s “very difficult” to predict the outcome, he said.
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