Brent Crude rises as Norway faces oil output shutdown

Brent Crude Oil Futures have shot up this afternoon (July 9th) on news Norway's oil output is facing shutdown as industrial action fails in the Scandinavian country.

The Norwegian government has confirmed that tomorrow, oil and gas production will be shut down due to a disagreement over pensions.

Workers will be locked out from late tonight after talks to try and end the two-week-long strikes broke down for a third time.

The dispute is over offshore workers' retirement packages and their right to retire early with a full pension.

Norway is the fifth-largest oil exporter in the world and has already seen its production slashed by 13 per cent for the black stuff and four per cent for gas since the industrial action began on June 24th.

At 16:40 BST, Brent Crude Oil Futures rose one per cent to $99 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures were up 1.3 per cent to $85.2 per barrel.