Norway oil industry talks to continue overnight

OSLO, July 7 (Reuters) - Norway's offshore oil workers and their employers will continue talks to find a solution to a strike and planned lockout throughout Saturday evening and into Sunday, a state-appointed mediator said.

The parties, urged on by Norway's government, seek to avert a total shutdown of oil and gas output by western Europe's biggest producer.

"Negotiations have just started, the situation is the same as before so far," mediator Carl Petter Martinsen told Reuters. "All I can say is that the parties are working together to try and find a solution."

Martinsen said negotiations were likely to continue over the coming days.

Oil workers went on strike on June 24 and the dispute escalated on Thursday after Norway's oil industry association, the OLF, announced plans to lock the workers out from July 10.

The dispute has already slowed crude exports, cut Norway's oil production by around 13 percent and its gas output by around 4 percent.

Norway's Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstroem on Friday summoned the parties to a meeting during which she asked them to resume mediated talks but refrained from forcing striking offshore oil and gas workers back to work.