Norway's unions agree wage deal to avert strike at offshore installations

OSLO, July 2 (Reuters) - Norway's unions representing workers on drilling rigs and floating production platforms reached a wage deal on Thursday evening, ahead of a midnight deadline to avert a strike, labour unions and the employers' association said.

The unions had threatened to call out more than 600 members employed on Transocean's Encourage rig, Odfjell Technology's Linus rig, AKOFS Offshore's Seafarer well intervention vessel and Equinor-operated Gullfaks B platform.

The parties agreed on a 5.2% general wage increase, in line with settlements reached elsewhere in Norway's oil and gas industry, in addition to increases in pension contributions, the Norwegian Shipowners' Association, which represented employers in the talks, said in a statement.

The strike would have put further pressure on Norway's oil and gas industry, which has already faced disruption from an ongoing labour dispute involving oil service workers.

(Reporting by Alexander Klyve Gudbrandsen and Nerijus Adomaitis;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)