UPDATE 1-Gabon oil union threatens nationwide shutdown

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LIBREVILLE, March 29 (Reuters) - Oil industry unions in Gabon threatened to call a nationwide strike if they fail to reach a deal to end a strike at Shell's (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) subsidiary in the country, where 60,000 bpd is shut down.

"We are calling for the mobilisation of all ONEP members," Guy Roger Aurat Reteno, secretary-general of Gabon's National Organisation of Petroleum Workers (ONEP), told reporters late on Friday in the capital Libreville.

Gabon's forecast production in 2007 was 240,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA).

"ONEP's executive bureau in Ogooue Maritime will make an appeal via the media in the coming hours for a general strike in the oil industry if no solution is found to the situation at Shell Gabon," Retano said.

Ogooue Maritime is the coastal province where Gabon's main oil installations are located, including Shell's headquarters at Gamba.

Retano said union representatives at Marathon Oil's (MRO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) operations in Gabon had served notice on Friday of a strike called insolidarity with workers at Shell.

ONEP represents workers at nearly 90 oil industry employers in Gabon, and has said only the biggest employer, Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), respects labour regulations set out in national laws governing the oil industry.

Workers demanding better overtime conditions and the departure of the senior management team at Shell Gabon went on strike at the company's operations on March 20.