RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — Workers for Brazil's state-run oil giant Petrobras are to start a five-day strike on Monday in a move likely to put more upward pressure on already record world oil prices.
The main union covering Petrobras workers in the key Campos off-shore area in southeastern Brazil confirmed to AFP Friday that the strike would take place.
"There will be minimal production if Petrobras accepts that the production is controlled by the workers. But if the company tries to use its own teams, we will disconnect the equipment," union spokesman Marcos Brida said.
Petrobras president Sergio Gabrielli told the online site of the Valor newspaper that his company had a contingency plan to maintain output.
Management was also holding talks with the union to head off the labor action, he said.
"I am not going to predict what might happen. We are negotiating and we hope nothing will happen," Gabrielli said.
Employees on the 42 Petrobras oil platforms in the Campos zone are demanding an extra day off in their contracts. Currently, they work 14 days straight then get 21 days of rest.
The union also wants the company to count as a working day the day the workers travel back to the mainland.
The Campos area accounts for 80 percent of Petrobras's daily production of 1.8 million barrels of oil.
Oil prices on Friday hit a new record high above 147 dollars as a result of several factors, including weak US currency, tensions over Iran and Nigeria and Petrobras's labor problem.
Gabrielli downplayed the impact of the looming strike on prices.
"Daily variations in oil (prices) don't mean very much. More than anything, it's a creation of unreasonable expectations than any results to do with reality," he told Valor.
Early this month the Petrobras boss said he did not expect crude prices to drop, and minimized the effect of speculators in the market.
Speculation existed, he told the World Oil Congress in Madrid on July 3, but "it has nothing to do with the long-term trend" of high oil prices, which he said would remain high because of keener demand.
He said production costs were also rising, and the company would need more workers than were currently available.
Petrobras is Brazil's biggest company, according to Fortune magazine, which put it as the 63rd-biggest enterprise in the world with 87.7 billion dollars in revenues last year and profits of 13.1 billion dollars.
Although Brazil is technically self-sufficient in oil needs, it has to import large amounts of light crude to mix with its heavier domestic variety of oil. Oil imports account for nearly 20 percent of its overall imports, according to the industry and trade ministry.
Petrobras has announced major new oil finds offshore, but these are so deep and costly to get at that any production is several years away. If they turn out to be as vast as thought, the country could rival OPEC member Venezuela in its output.
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