BP announce 800 contractors' jobs to go

BP announced the loss of 800 contractors' positions today (31 May 2002) on top of 500 job losses earlier this year.

The new round of cuts will be spread among contract staff in Aberdeen, offshore, Sullom Voe in Shetland, Bacton in Norfolk and Hartlepool on Teeside.

David Davidson, the Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament for North-east Scotland blamed the reductions on the chancellor's introduction of a new oil tax in the last Budget. He added, "My greatest fear is that this is only the start of bigger job losses in the industry and I urge the chancellor to think again."

Jake Molloy, of the OILC union, was not optimistic about the prospects of the job losses being offset by other parts of the industry. He said: "When BP and Shell, the big players, move in this direction it is most likely that the others will follow suit."

BP employs about 3,300 people in the UK in upstream oil and gas exploration and production activities.
Most of the 1,800 onshore staff are employed in Aberdeen, while the remaining 1,300 work offshore.
A further 3,300 agency and contract workers are employed by the company, which is responsible for about a fifth of the output of Britain's North Sea offshore oil and gas fields.

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