Employees of Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil company, are demanding a pay increase. They say workers at 13 oil platforms in the Campos Basin are already participating in the strike.
Union leaders say they expect production at more than 30 of the region's 42 oil platforms to eventually come to a near standstill.
Drilling in the Campos Basin accounts for 80 percent of Brazil's crude oil output, and concerns about the strike at one point pushed the price of crude oil to more than $146 a barrel in New York trading Monday.
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