This chart shows why UK North Sea strikes won’t affect oil prices
While North Sea oil workers will grab Britain's attention when they go on strike tomorrow, global crude markets are unlikely to notice.
The 24-hour stoppage will see 400 Wood Group employees walk out of eight platforms which are owned by Royal Dutch Shell. And it's expected to be followed by additional strikes over the following weeks.
Read more: Date set for first North Sea oil strike in a generation
The first industrial action of its kind in the offshore oil and gas industry is likely to make headlines around the UK. Workers are protesting plans to introduce lower pay, longer hours and more demanding work schedules.
But unlike recent supply outages, such as the relentless sabotage of oil supplies by militants in Nigeria as well as wildfires in Canada, strikes in the ageing basin do not have the ability to move global oil prices.
Read more: North Sea oil workers back strike action as tensions mount
Shell said that that it doesn't expect tomorrow's strike to have any impact on output. And any future strikes are also unlikely to affect oil prices, because the UK is responsible for a fraction of global oil output.
"UK production is trivial in the global arena … there's going to be no impact whatsoever," Dougie Youngson, research director of oil and gas at Fincapp, told Morning Wire
