LONDON (Alliance News) - Oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea could be hit by potential strike action planned by the British Airline Pilots Association, which represents a large amount of helicopter pilots that serve the industry in the area.
BALPA said last week that over a third of the helicopter pilots operating in the North Sea held a meeting in Aberdeen in Scotland to discuss issues in the North Sea for helicopter operators, which are considering redundancies due to the knock-on effect of lower oil prices.
BALPA says it works with the UK Civil Aviation Authority, government departments and other professional bodies where "the voice of the pilot is needed". It represents pilots in around 26 companies.
Back in July, BALPA said its members that operate in the North Sea wrote to the government to call for a summit on North Sea jobs, after Bristow Helicopters announced it will make 130 people redundant due pressure on the North Sea oil industry.
That was then followed by CHC Scotia announcing there would be 50 job losses in Aberdeen in the second week of August.
Around half of those 180 job losses will be pilots with the other half being made up of other staff members at the organisations.
Commenting on the meeting last week, BALPA said: "The meeting was appalled to hear the employers' approach to the redundancies, at the ruthless exploitation of the weak market by the oil and gas majors, and at the consequent real risk to safety in the North Sea. There was an overwhelming call for BALPA to run a ballot for strike action," it said last Friday.
BALPA said the oil and gas majors are "exploiting the crazy competition" and said any redundancies would be "bad for employees, bad for business, bad for the UK economy and bad for safety".
BALPA said the ballot would close on Tuesday. However the results of the ballot have not yet been released, and it is not yet known whether the strike action will go ahead. A spokesman from BALPA told Alliance News the results of the ballot are likely to be announced sometime on Thursday afternoon.
Oil and Gas UK, which represents the majority of companies operating in the North Sea, said it was "disappointed" by the decision and said strike action would only "exacerbate the real challenges".
"The combination of high costs and lower oil prices is proving extremely testing for the industry and operators and contractors across the sector are having to adapt to the challenging business environment. Difficult decisions must be made; however, safety remains a core value at the heart of the sector?s activities. While the industry responds to these new circumstances, industrial action will only exacerbate the real challenges facing the business," Oil and Gas UK said.
Companies operating in the North Sea include majors such as BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BG Group PLC, BHP Billiton PLC, Centrica PLC, Premier Oil PLC, Cairn Energy PLC and smaller companies like Parkmead Group PLC, Europa Oil and Gas (Holdings) PLC, Independent Oil and Gas PLC and Trap Oil PLC.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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