RIO DE JANEIRO, March 23 - Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras said on Monday its oil platforms were operating normally despite an oil workers' strike after sending emergency crews to man its facilities.
After a dramatic start in which the FUP association of oil worker unions announced disruption at oil and gas terminals nationwide, the stoppage appeared headed in the same direction as a strike last July, which flagged after the first day.
FUP, which is leading the strike, said early on Monday that the work stoppage had halted production at Petrobras's 60,000 barrel-per-day P-34 platform in the Campos basin and that workers refused to carry out their duties at many locations.
After initially refusing to comment, Petrobras said it was working at normal capacity by the afternoon.
"All company units are operating normally, production and operational and employee safety were unaffected by the movement," the company said in a statement.
It added that it remained open to negotiations to resolve the impasse with the oil workers' union, which began the five-day strike on Sunday night to seek a bigger share of company profits for workers and better contractual conditions.
Strike coordinator Joao Antonio de Moraes said strikers had interrupted operations at oil refineries and terminals nationwide, including a Petrobras fuel terminal at the country's main international airport in Guarulhos on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's business capital.
An airport spokeswoman said jet fuel supplies had not been affected.
"Participation is very strong. We stopped P-34 and the Suape terminals in Pernambuco, the Solimoes terminal in Amazonas state and the Guarulhos terminal in greater Sao Paulo," de Moraes said, stressing that strikers had committed to not allow service stations to run dry.
Traders shrugged off news of the strike, instead focusing on a rally in oil prices. Petrobras shares hovered around 5 percent higher at 30.58 reais in intraday trade on Monday at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange.
"Everything will depend on the duration of the strike, which isn't much of a worry for now," said Monica Araujo, an oil analyst at the Brazil-based Ativa brokerage.
Oil hit a three-month high, jumping nearly 4 percent on Monday to over $54 a barrel, supported by a rise in the stocks which were boosted by strong housing data and a U.S. plan to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets.
The P-34 platform sits in the Campos basin, which currently accounts for 85 percent of Brazil's oil output. It is also the first platform to pump light crude from vast, newfound reserves beneath a thick layer of salt deep below the ocean floor.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wet his hands in oil on the platform to great fanfare last September, when it began pumping crude from the so-called subsalt layer. The government hopes the new reserves will eventually catapult Brazil to among the world's top oil producers.
Petrobras is the largest publicly-traded oil company in Latin America. Its Brazilian crude output stood at a record 1.94 million barrels per day on average in February and the firm discovered potentially huge sub-salt reserves deep below the sea bed in 2007.
The FUP held a previous strike last July which succeeded in briefly reducing crude production on the first day, but Petrobras dispatched emergency crews and restored output within hours. The strike dragged on for several more days but with little or no effect on operations.
The union said it is planning a five-day stoppage and said it would review then whether to continue or call off the industrial action.
After a dramatic start in which the FUP association of oil worker unions announced disruption at oil and gas terminals nationwide, the stoppage appeared headed in the same direction as a strike last July, which flagged after the first day.
FUP, which is leading the strike, said early on Monday that the work stoppage had halted production at Petrobras's 60,000 barrel-per-day P-34 platform in the Campos basin and that workers refused to carry out their duties at many locations.
After initially refusing to comment, Petrobras said it was working at normal capacity by the afternoon.
"All company units are operating normally, production and operational and employee safety were unaffected by the movement," the company said in a statement.
It added that it remained open to negotiations to resolve the impasse with the oil workers' union, which began the five-day strike on Sunday night to seek a bigger share of company profits for workers and better contractual conditions.
Strike coordinator Joao Antonio de Moraes said strikers had interrupted operations at oil refineries and terminals nationwide, including a Petrobras fuel terminal at the country's main international airport in Guarulhos on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's business capital.
An airport spokeswoman said jet fuel supplies had not been affected.
"Participation is very strong. We stopped P-34 and the Suape terminals in Pernambuco, the Solimoes terminal in Amazonas state and the Guarulhos terminal in greater Sao Paulo," de Moraes said, stressing that strikers had committed to not allow service stations to run dry.
Traders shrugged off news of the strike, instead focusing on a rally in oil prices. Petrobras shares hovered around 5 percent higher at 30.58 reais in intraday trade on Monday at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange.
"Everything will depend on the duration of the strike, which isn't much of a worry for now," said Monica Araujo, an oil analyst at the Brazil-based Ativa brokerage.
Oil hit a three-month high, jumping nearly 4 percent on Monday to over $54 a barrel, supported by a rise in the stocks which were boosted by strong housing data and a U.S. plan to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets.
The P-34 platform sits in the Campos basin, which currently accounts for 85 percent of Brazil's oil output. It is also the first platform to pump light crude from vast, newfound reserves beneath a thick layer of salt deep below the ocean floor.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wet his hands in oil on the platform to great fanfare last September, when it began pumping crude from the so-called subsalt layer. The government hopes the new reserves will eventually catapult Brazil to among the world's top oil producers.
Petrobras is the largest publicly-traded oil company in Latin America. Its Brazilian crude output stood at a record 1.94 million barrels per day on average in February and the firm discovered potentially huge sub-salt reserves deep below the sea bed in 2007.
The FUP held a previous strike last July which succeeded in briefly reducing crude production on the first day, but Petrobras dispatched emergency crews and restored output within hours. The strike dragged on for several more days but with little or no effect on operations.
The union said it is planning a five-day stoppage and said it would review then whether to continue or call off the industrial action.
