LONDON—Workers returned to the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland on Tuesday after a 48-hour strike that forced the closure of a major North Sea pipeline system.
UNITE, Britain's largest union, said further industrial action is possible unless refinery owner Ineos backs down in a dispute over pensions.
Business Secretary John Hutton, who was in Scotland on Tuesday, said he was glad the union and company planned to meet later in the day.
"There is a gap between the two sides that has got to be bridged -- only the two parties themselves can reach an agreement. No one can do that for them," Hutton said.
The strike at the refinery led to the closure of the Forties Pipeline System, which brings more than 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea to BP PLC's Kinneil plant. Kinneil is powered from the Grangemouth site.
Ineos Group Ltd. spokesman Mark Killick said it would be about three or four days before the system was fully operational.
Killick added that restoring operations to the refinery could take as long as a month if there were problems reintroducing heat and pressure into the pipes.
