Norwegian oil firms struck a wage bargain with labor union officials on Oct. 9, ending a strike that had threatened to cut the country's oil and gas output by close to 25% next week, negotiators for each side told Reuters.

Brent oil prices fell by more than 1% on the news to $42.74.

Six offshore fields shut on Oct. 5 and a further seven had been scheduled to follow in the coming days, with the oil and gas outage set to grow to 966,000 boe/d by Oct. 14, the industry had said.

"We have a deal, there will be no [more] strike [action]," negotiator Jan Hodneland of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said after the talks ended.

The Lederne trade union confirmed the news.

"The strike is over," union chief Audun Ingvartsen said.

Oil firms and union officials met on Oct. 9 with a state-appointed mediator to try to end the 10-day strike in western Europe's biggest oil and gas producing nation.

The Oct. 9 meeting was the first with the state mediator since the strike was announced on Sept. 30, although informal talks had been taking place.

Crucially, the union said its new bargain for offshore workers included provisions for land-based workers at the onshore control rooms of Aker BP ASA and Equinor ASA, a key demand in Lederne's strike.

The settlement also included a commitment from oil firms to sign a broader, long-term agreement later, the union said.

Wages will also increase, according to Lederne, although this was in line with what other workers in the industry had obtained, the union said.

The NOG was not immediately comment on the agreement.

The strike's first production outage began on Oct. 5, amounting to 330,000 boe/d, with an additional shutdowns due this weekend at six fields operated by Equinor, ConocoPhillips Co. and Wintershall Dea.

Equinor's Johan Sverdrup oil field, the North Sea's largest with oil output capacity of up to 470,000 bbl/d, had been scheduled to close on Oct. 14 as a result of the strike.

Norwegian oil workers are among the highest paid in Europe but earn less than those in Australia or North America, a review of the latest available data shows.

Offshore