* Shell says oil production back to normal within days
* Total says production back to normal by Tuesday
(Adds Tullow comment paragraph 7, 8)
By Jessica Donati and Muriel Boselli
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - International oil companies operating in Gabon expect their crude production to be back to normal within days after the oil employees' union agreed to end a four-day strike, company spokesmen said on Tuesday.
The strike by the ONEP oil workers' union, seeking more local hiring in the energy sector, began on Friday and paralysed production of the central African country's estimated 240,000 barrels per day by Saturday afternoon.
Royal Dutch/Shell Union leaders called an end to the industrial action on
Monday evening after reaching an agreement with the government
over local hiring requirements. "A notification of end of strike was sent by the union to
staff yesterday night. In the wake of this agreement union staff
are back to work this morning," a Shell spokesman said. "It will take a few days to get production back to normal.
We are working hard on that," he added. Shell produced 34,000
bpd in Gabon in 2010 from 11 concessions. A spokesman for Total said the French oil major's 67,000 bpd
production in Gabon will be back at full capacity on Tuesday
after restarting late on Monday. Tullow, which in the first half of 2010 had an average
working interest production in Gabon of 12,700 bpd, said
operations were resuming after the strike. "Production is in the process of restarting," a Tullow
spokesman said, adding he did not know how long it would take to
return to full capacity. Late on Monday VAALCO Energy Inc also said it expected full
production, both onshore and offshore, would resume within 24
hours. Gabon is Africa's seventh largest oil producer and the ONEP
union, which has a long history of grievances over pay and local
hiring practices, represents about 4,000 of the country's 5,000
oil workers. Late last year the government agreed to trade union demands
to limit foreign workers in its oil sector to 10 percent and to
require all executive posts to be held by Gabonese, but never
ratified the law. Gabon's oil sector is one of Africa's most mature but has
been in steady decline since output peaked at about 370,000 bpd
in 1997. Energy revenues account for about 40 percent of the
country's budget, and the government is pushing to revitalise
the sector and diversify its economy.
(Writing by Nia Williams; editing by James Jukwey)