HOUSTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Lead U.S. oil company negotiatorShell Oil Co said face-to-face negotiations on Friday with theUnited Steelworkers union (USW) failed to yield an agreement toend the 20-day-old U.S. refinery strike.
Workers at several refineries and chemical plants werewaiting for instructions to join the more than 5,000 workers at11 plants, including nine refineries accounting for 13 percentof U.S. production capacity, walking picket lines in the largestnational refinery strike since 1980.
Rumors about a tentative deal between the USW and Shell Oil,which is the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, werebeing swapped through text messages, emails and phone callsamong oil industry insiders throughout the night.
"Discussions with the United Steelworkers concluded for thisevening with no agreement in place," said Shell spokesman RayFisher.
The Steelworkers said in a message to members and newsmedia, including Reuters, that talks were continuing.
A USW spokeswoman confirmed the text message, but had nofurther information whether the talks were continuing on Fridaynight or some future date.
Shell and the union have been meeting continuously sincetalks resumed on Wednesday following a week-long break for thecompany to reply to an information request and a counterproposalfrom the USW.
Union negotiators rejected the seventh contract offer fromShell on Thursday night.
Earlier this week, the USW's lead negotiator, InternationalVice President Gary Beevers, told Reuters that safe staffinglevels at refineries and chemical plants were a sticking pointin the talks.
The strike widened on Feb. 6, when workers at two refineriesoperated by BP Plc were told to walk off their jobs thefollowing day.
In addition to the two BP-operated plants, workers arestriking at refineries and plants owned by Lyondell Basell, Marathon Petroleum Corp, Shell, and Tesoro Corp in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington state.
Only one refinery has shut down due to the strike.
Tesoro Corp's 166,000-bpd plant in Martinez,California was scheduled prior to the strike for a partialshutdown to perform a planned multi-unit overhaul. Companyofficials decided to idle the entire plant after the walkoutbegan and said production would not resume for the duration ofthe work stoppage.
The USW is seeking a three-year, industrywide pact thatwould cover 30,000 workers at 63 U.S. refineries that togetheraccount for two-thirds of domestic capacity.
Companies have called on temporary replacement workers tokeep plants running at nearly normal levels. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
