Brazil oil workers start strike, halting most output

By Peter Murphy

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Oil workers at Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Brazil's national energy giant, halted extraction at most of the country's main fields in the Campos basin at the outset of a planned five-day strike, a union official said on Monday.

Campos accounts for more than 80 percent of Brazil's crude output of 1.8 million barrels per day, or around 2 percent of world supply. Worries about the strike helped push up world oil prices CLc1 last week to a new record on Friday above $147.

"Of the 42 platforms, 33 are now stopped," said Jose Genivaldo Silva, director of the United Oil Workers' Federation (FUP), an umbrella union, almost one hour into the stoppage.

Petrobras had said it would implement a contingency plan to maintain production on the platforms but Silva said workers would resist any such attempts. The firm has so far declined to comment on the stoppage.

Brazil is self-sufficient in oil and little of its production is exported, meaning the stoppage is likely to have little impact on foreign importers.

Petrobras said in May that first quarter net imports of oil and products totaled 7,000 bpd, while a year ago it had net exports of 187,000 bpd. It expects to end this year with net exports, making it the third year of the country's self-sufficiency in oil.

Brazil's oil sector was opened to competition in 1997, but Petrobras is still the dominant player.

Royal Dutch Shell, Repsol-YPF and Devon Energy Corp are already pumping crude in Brazil. Chevron will join them with an off-shore field that should start pumping next year and two more in 2010 and 2012. Dozens of other companies are looking for oil in Latin America's largest country.