(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. liquefied natural gas workers in Australia threatened two weeks of 24-hour rolling outages at two major export plants from mid-September, in an escalation of the dispute that threatens global fuel supply.
The workers have served Chevron notice that they plan full stoppages from Sept. 14, following partial strikes from Sept. 7, the Offshore Alliance grouping said Tuesday on Facebook.
The threat of worker action in Western Australia has roiled global natural gas markets that are still edgy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year saw supply curbed and prices soar to unprecedented heights. The two facilities operated by Chevron — Gorgon and Wheatstone — made up roughly 7% of global LNG supply last year.
The parties have started so-called conciliation conferences, according to a Chevron spokesperson, after employees at the two plants voted down the company’s pay package proposal. The company last week said it applied to the Fair Work Commission to seek assistance in dealing with the dispute.
A two-week shutdown at the Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities could lower Australian output by 1.1 million tons, BloombergNEF said Monday in its Global LNG Winter Outlook.
--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh.
