Shell announced it will shut down its floating liquefied gas plant (LNG) Prelude..The company has been faced with an "escalating industrial action" after workers turned down a $30,000 pay raise. In other words, workers are on strike..The company said it will suspend production at its LNG facility, located 470 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia, due to industrial action work bans “that prohibit off take activities.".Prelude employees, unions and Shell are currently locked in an industrial action dispute over a new enterprise agreement..A bid to resolve the dispute resulted in 95% of voting workers rejecting Shell’s revised agreement offer, despite a pay raise of $30,000.."Until the bans on the offtake of cargoes are lifted and the plant can be safely restarted, staff required to perform safety-critical functions will remain on board while all other workers will be demobilized," a Shell spokesperson said.."Shell recognizes the entitlement of all workers to exercise their rights, including the right to participate in industrial action.".The Offshore Alliance union said it will block Shell from unloading its storage tanks..“Shell suspended bargaining two weeks ago when they should have been negotiating to try and reach mutually acceptable outcomes on employment conditions,” Offshore Alliance said in a Facebook post. .“Burning several hundred million dollars of profit and lost production is a course of action which makes zero financial sense and is a self-inflicted outcome of Shell’s gross mismanagement of industrial relations.”.The shutdown could push world gas prices higher. Prelude has already informed customers on Monday it will unable to supply cargoes until at least July 21 after cancelling shipments from the plant two weeks ago. .Employees at the facility have been engaged in the strike since June 10.
