Norway Calls in Mediator to Avert Strikes
Norwegian employers and labor unions failed to reach a deal in initial wage talks on Thursday, union sources told Reuters, leaving it up to a state-appointed mediator to avert widespread strikes that risk impacting output in western Europe's biggest crude producer. Negotiations will resume after the upcoming Easter holiday, ahead of an April 7 deadline, after which most workers are allowed to go on strike. While Norway's production of oil and natural gas is unlikely to be targeted from the start since the contract for rig workers' is valid until June, unions may still hit the sector by shutting
Oil Producer Norway Starts Wage Talks to Avert Widespread Strikes
Norwegian employers and labour unions embarked on four weeks' of wage talks on Monday to stave off widespread strikes that risk impacting output in western Europe's biggest crude producer. Unlike most years, in which wages are set on an industry-by-industry basis to reduce complexity, the 2018 round rolls a majority of private sector firms into a single negotiation in a bid to resolve a stand-off over pension reform. "We've understood that there is no real will among employers to compromise from the outset," labour union negotiator Asle Reime, who will represent oil workers
Colombia's Ecopetrol Names New CEO, Echeverry Resigns
since February 2016. Echeverry told Reuters in an interview last week that the company will focus on exploring for unconventional deposits in the center and north of the country over the next few years in a bid to increase oil reserves. Ecopetrol is Colombia's largest company and its top crude producer. The government controls 88.49 percent of the firm. (Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb
