By Claudia Assis and Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures declined Tuesday after Norway’s government decided to avert an industry lockout by stopping a petroleum workers’ labor strike and imposing arbitration early Tuesday in Oslo.
The lockout was planned for midnight Oslo time in response to the strike by offshore workers, which had been in its third week. Instead, the parties will submit to a binding decision from a national wage arbitration tribunal.
Crude for August delivery CLQ2 -1.24% declined 67 cents, or 0.8%, to $85.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude futures had risen sharply Monday amid the threat of a shutdown in Norway, the world’s fifth largest oil exporter. New York-traded oil ended 1.8% higher on Monday, while Europe’s Brent jumped 2.2%.
August Brent UK:LCOQ2 -1.56% declined $1.06, or 1.1%, to $99.25 a barrel on ICE Futures in London.
Norway’s state-controlled oil firm Statoil ASA NO:STL +1.56% STO +0.38% said it is preparing to resume production at its installations affected by the strike.
“Production from these installations will be resumed as quickly as possible. It may take from one to two days to get production started, and Statoil expects to have the fields back in full production within a week,” the company said in a statement.
Among other energy futures, August natural gas NGQ12 -2.67% declined 9 cents, or 3%, to $2.80 per million British thermal units, giving back some of Monday’s sharp gains. Natural-gas futures advanced 3.9% in the previous session.
August gasoline RBQ2 +0.35% fell 1 cent, or 0.4%, to $2.77 a gallon, while August heating oil HOQ2 -0.46% dropped less than one cent, or 0.3%, to $2.74 a gallon.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
