Norway's Johan Sverdrup oil field, the North Sea's largest with an output capacity of up to 470,000 bbl/d of oil, will likely have to shut production unless a strike among workers ends by Oct. 14, operator Equinor ASA said on Oct. 7.

A shutdown at Sverdrup would more than double the existing outage from the ongoing strike by the Lederne union, taking the total capacity cut to around 800,000 boe/d.

The price of North Sea oil rose by around $0.15 to over $42/bbl by 2:10 p.m. CT (19:10 GMT) after news of the potential shutdown, Refinitiv data showed.

Some 43 members of the Lederne labour union went on strike at the Sverdrup Field last week, but Equinor was able to maintain output with its remaining staff, the company said at the time.

"This situation would change if the strike continues into Oct. 14," the company said in a statement.

"This is due to the scheduled rotation of personnel as there would not be sufficient capacity and competence in key operational functions at Johan Sverdrup," Equinor said.

"We hope that in the intervening period there may be a settlement between [the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, NOG] and the union," it added.

Six other offshore oil and gas fields shut down on Oct. 5 this week as the union ramped up its strike, reducing output by around 330,000 boe/d, according to NOG.

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Workers at another four fields are due to go on strike on Oct. 10, although the industry has not said how big the impact would be on production.

Of the fields that have closed so far, close to 60% of the total cuts were natural gas, with crude oil and NGL making up the rest, a Reuters calculation based on official Norwegian output data showed.

Norway regularly pumps just over 4 million boe/d, half in the form of crude and other liquids and half from natural gas, making it a major global energy supplier.