“NOPSEMA will continue to monitor the situation and ensure Shell manage risk and comply with their regulatory obligations,” he said.

NOPSEMA inspectors are visiting the Prelude this week, according to a plan obtained by this masthead, when they will check if Shell has completed safety work previous promised to the regulator and investigate recent incidents including a release of gas when an LNG carrier was being loaded.

Mediation by the Fair Work Commission over the weekend reduced the number of issues in dispute between Shell and the Offshore Alliance of the Australian Workers Union and the Maritime Union.

A major remaining difference is the unions’ desire to stop Shell moving the more than 200 operational positions covered by the dispute from direct hire by Shell to a subcontractor where their negotiated conditions may not apply.

In May Japan’s Inpex agreed to a similar job security provision for its two Ichthys offshore facilities near the Prelude that forbade it from engaging any contractor “with the intent of eroding the permanence of employment for its direct hire workforce.”

The Prelude last exported liquified natural gas on July 8 and estimates of lost revenue from the strike vary between $500 million and $1.1 billion.

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It is understood that Shell estimates the union’s demands would cost it $40 million a year, meaning it would take the London-based company 12 years to recoup its losses if the action was resolved immediately in its favour.

This seems unlikely with the union’s Facebook site regularly taunting Shell with the slogan “one day longer and one day stronger”.

It is understood that the workers taking industrial action – which is a series of bans on particular activities rather than a complete cessation of work – are receiving about half their normal pay.