Norway's government has stepped in to prevent the country's oil industry grinding to a complete halt.
The eleventh-hour decision by the Scandinavian nation's legislators to use emergency powers averted a potentially devastating lockout by oil companies which would have brought the country's highly lucrative, and globally important, oil production across the entire continental shelf to a standstill.
The dispute over workers' pensions, with offshore employees wanting the right to retire on full pension at the age of 62, had already been running for more than two weeks. The workers' declaration of a go-slow had reduced Norway's oil output by 15%. As well as blowing a $510m hole in the country's budget, global oil prices soared above $100/barrel as the oil companies' deadline - represented by OLF, Norway's oil industry association - grew nearer.
When last-ditch negotiations failed, the government took the decision to step-in and end the strike using emergency powers legislation. According to Norway's Labour Minister, quoted by news agency Reuters, "It wasn't an easy choice, but I had to do it."
As the world's fifth largest oil exporter, the impact on global oil supplies would have been significant, particularly if the lockout had lasted for three weeks - the time taken to resolve the previous dispute in 1986 when the government was again forced to intervene.