North Sea crisis not over

Oil giant BP yesterday (January 12) announced its intention to axe one in five North Sea jobs as part of a global workforce reduction.

BP, one of the worlds’ ‘super-major’ oil and gas companies generating over $4bn of profits last year is cutting 600 UK jobs because of the ongoing oil crisis.

“This announcement shows the crisis which has gripped our oil and gas sector for over a year now is far from over. It’s another hammer blow for jobs and skills,” said John Boland, Unite regional officer.

A massive slump in the price of oil – currently below $32 a barrel – has seen over 65,000 oil and gas related jobs go across the UK in just the last year.

“It is deeply worrying that we are now seeing a super-major making deep cuts to its workforce across the UK,” said John.

“We need an emergency convention of all the industry stakeholders – government, employers and trade unions – to tackle this crisis so we have a safe and sustainable industry for the next generation,” he added.

 

The North Sea cuts will affect oil rig workers as well as office-based staff and agency workers on long-term contracts, but there are no plans to close any oil rigs, BP have said.

 

“Unite will be meeting with the company later this week as collective consultations get underway but we are clear that there should be no imposition of compulsory redundancies and reductions should be pursued through voluntary means,” said John.