Petroleum Geo-Services and the Seismic Union Parat, the union organizing approximately 15% of the company's marine seismic crew, have not been able to come to agreement regarding the employment agreement for 2009 within the deadline, midnight Oslo time on May 4th.

As a result, Parat has taken members out in a strike. The strike will affect the members of Parat involved in the rigging of the vessels Sterling and Apollo from May 5th, and will gradually be stepped up to include Parat members on other vessels until June 10th.

PGS has implemented a zero percent increase for its top management, and an average two percent increase for all other personnel. The same two percent increase has been offered to the members of Parat.

The claimed increase in salary and benefits from Parat is estimated to represent a 10.8 percent increase from the 2008 level.

Tags: Petroleum Geo-Services ASA