(Adds Norway's gas systems operator)
OSLO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - The planned escalation of a strike
by Norwegian security guards could shut Norway's Nyhamna gas
processing plant and two large gas fields in the coming days,
system operator Gassco said on Thursday.
The potential shutdown of the plant could take place during
the evening on Friday, Gassco said, reducing the country's
exports to Europe by a quarter.
Some 2,300 security guards organised by the Norwegian Union
of General Workers (NAF) are currently on strike nationwide over
pay, and an additional 85 will go on strike from Saturday
onwards unless the dispute is resolved in the meantime.
A gradual shutdown would have to start on Friday to prepare
for the strike the following day, Gassco's systems operations
chief Alfred Hansen said.
"In order to shut down a facility like Nyhamna and to do it
in a safe and proper manner we would have to start a while
before," Hansen said.
"So we warned our shippers in the transportation system that
this potential is now clear and that we are preparing for this
scenario tomorrow"," he added.
Nyhamna processes gas from the Ormen Lange and Aasta
Hansteen fields, which would also have to shut as a consequence
of the strike, Gassco and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association
(NOG) said.
Export capacity from Nyhamna currently stands at 84 million
standard cubic metres (mcm) of gas per day, about a quarter of
Norway's expected 330 mcm export volume on Thursday.
The NAF union confirmed that security guards working at
Nyhamna are among those who will join the strike this weekend,
but declined to say how many.
While Norwegian governments can invoke emergency powers to
end workplace conflicts, they are generally reluctant to do so.
In 2012, the government ended a strike after 16 days when
employers threatened a lockout of workers that would have shut
down all output of oil and gas.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli, editing by Terje
Solsvik and Alexandra Hudson)
