March 22, 2002
Oil giant BP has announced plans to cut 500 jobs from its North Sea operations.
The company is planning to shed 200 of the posts at its Aberdeen headquarters. The remaining 300 jobs will be cut across both onshore and offshore operations.
The company said that after the restructuring it expected the North Sea to make an important contribution to its businesses for many years to come.
However, unions have warned the cuts will have an adverse impact on safety - and voiced fears that more jobs are likely to be lost amongst contractors working for the company.
The announcement comes in the wake of a major review by the company.
BP said it was ‘likely’ that most of the job cuts would come through voluntary redundancies.
‘Where that is not possible, BP will offer an extensive range of support services designed to minimise the disruption to those leaving the organisation,’ it said.
‘Most of the onshore employees will leave the company by the middle of the year, and offshore employees by the end of the year.’
The company said that £700m of the £840m it planned to invest in the North Sea this year would be dedicated to UK continental shelf activities.
Similar levels of investment are expected in the following two years.
BP has also insisted that the health and safety of the workforce will not be compromised as a result of the shake-up.
Many major oil companies have been reviewing operations to save costs, and there have been thousands of job losses in the industry in recent years.
Share your news!
Do you have a story to tell? Click on the link below to write to me and share it!
Write to Sue
read on
Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Sue Kelly