Kuwait Averts Refinery Strike After Agreement With Oil Workers

By Fiona MacDonald

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait National Petroleum Co., the state-run refiner, averted a strike at its three refineries today after oil workers reached an agreement with authorities on equal rights.

``An agreement was reached at 1:00 this morning and the strike has been stopped,'' Mohammed al-Hamlan, deputy president of the KNPC Labor Syndicate, said in a phone interview today. The refinery employees will resume duty as normal, he said.

Workers had threatened to shut down Kuwait's three refineries and disrupt exports over demands for equal pay and rights as colleagues in the same jobs in other companies under the umbrella of state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

KNPC Deputy Chairman Asaad al-Saad said Oct. 16 the company had an ``alternative plan'' to ensure the refineries and exports suffer minimum impact by the strike.

Kuwait's three refineries, Mina Abdullah, Mina Al-Ahmadi and Shuaiba, have a total capacity of 936,000 barrels a day. Kuwait is the fourth-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait at FmacDonald4@bloomberg.net