Bilfinger Offshore Workers Striking Over Pay

Unite members employed by Bilfinger on North Sea assets operated by Ithaca Energy are striking in a dispute over pay, a statement sent to Rigzone by the union has revealed.

“Around 20 workers are involved in a dispute over the refusal by Ithaca Energy to extend a retention bonus to Bilfinger workers on the Alba Floating Storage Unit (FSU) and its floating production facility (FPF)1,” Unite said in the statement.

“Ithaca Energy has excluded the Bilfinger employees who include scaffolders, engineers, deck, and rope access workers from the bonus scheme with workers of other companies on the same assets in receipt of the bonus payment,” Unite added.

The statement highlighted that the workers are taking industrial action from June 4 until the end of June 7 on the Alba unit. This will be followed by four days of action on the FPF1 from June 9 to close of play on June 12, the statement pointed out. 

Unite noted that previous industrial action was postponed to allow talks to take place with Bilfinger.

“Despite this gesture of goodwill, there has been minimal progress from the company or Ithaca Energy who own the assets on a payment to the workers,” Unite said in the statement.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said in the Unite statement, “Ithaca Energy and Bilfinger are incredibly wealthy companies that can fully afford to pay the retention bonus to our members”.

Unite Industrial Officer Paula Buchan said, “Unite has tried to get Ithaca Energy as the ultimate paymasters and Bilfinger around the table to get a positive resolution to this dispute”.

“It’s unacceptable that our members are being denied a payment which other companies are paying to workers on these assets,” Buchan added.

 “Strikes on the Alba FSU and FPF1 will have a significant impact on the day to day operations of these assets. We will also escalate this action if Ithaca Energy and Bilfinger refuse to see sense,” Buchan warned.

Rigzone contacted Ithaca Energy and Bilfinger for comment on the Unite statement. Bilfinger declined to comment. Ithaca Energy has not responded to Rigzone at the time of writing.

Ithaca highlights on its website that the Alba field lies about 130 miles north-east of Aberdeen, in the UK Central North Sea, in water depths of approximately 453 feet.

“Discovered in 1984 in Block 16/26, Alba is a heavy oil field and was one of the first shallow Eocene reservoirs to be successfully developed in the North Sea,” the site notes, adding that first oil was achieved in January 1994.

In a statement posted on social media on May 25, Ithaca announced the cessation of production at Alba “marking the end of production and a major milestone in Alba’s history”.

“The Alba field was a pioneer in rethinking North Sea development,” Ithaca said in that statement.

“The field was known to be technically difficult - heavy oil, shallow reservoirs, and no straightforward export route. The solution was innovative for its time - a combination of a fixed steel production platform and a permanently moored Floating Storage Unit (FSU), allowing oil to be processed offshore, stored safely, and exported by shuttle tanker, bypassing the need for pipelines altogether,” it added.

“For more than 30 years, Alba North Platform (ANP) and the FSU worked together to enable the safe production, storage, and export of Alba crude,” it continued.

“As Alba moves into its final chapter, we’ll be taking a journey through its history, its people and the legacy it leaves behind over the coming weeks,” it went on to state.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com