
BP Plans to Cut 4,000 More Oil Jobs
By Rakteem Katakey
(Bloomberg) — BP Plc plans to chop 4,000 jobs in its crude- oil manufacturing division this 12 months as costs commerce close to a 12-year low.
The firm will cut back its worldwide upstream workforce to lower than 20,000, London-based spokesman David Nicholas mentioned by telephone. The cuts embody 600 individuals working at North Sea tasks: they’ll lose their positions over the following two years “with the majority in the first year,” he mentioned.
BP, one of many first producers to foretell a protracted oil value hunch, is reducing employees after dismissing 4,000 workers final 12 months. The oil business has lower greater than 250,000 jobs previously 18 months as corporations cut back spending on exploration and defer new tasks amid declining revenue and income.
“It’s a reflection of how oil companies have been forced to react to the downturn,” Jason Gammel, a London-based analyst with Jefferies International Ltd., mentioned by telephone. “It could have a negative impact on oil production levels in the future but protecting the balance sheet is the primary concern at this time.”
BP shares climbed 2.4 p.c as of 1:54 p.m. in London, paring this 12 months’s decline to five p.c after a 14 p.c drop in 2015.
Profit Squeezed
The firm’s adjusted web revenue has dropped for 5 consecutive quarters in contrast with year-earlier intervals. On Monday, BP mentioned it has began a session course of to cut back jobs at its gasoline retail enterprise in Germany, after Welt am Sonntag reported that it was planning to chop as many as 800 jobs.
BP at the moment employs about 3,000 individuals at North Sea tasks. The firm had 84,500 workers worldwide on the finish of 2014, in accordance with information compiled by Bloomberg.
The variety of jobs lower by oil and fuel corporations all over the world has handed 250,000, with nonetheless extra to return, business marketing consultant Graves & Co. mentioned in November. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil firm, deliberate to fireside greater than 6,500 workers final 12 months and lose one other 2,800 jobs after it buys BG Group Plc.
BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley mentioned in October that he plans to have the ability to pay dividends with out having to borrow cash if oil costs are about $60 a barrel by 2017, echoing an analogous technique from French producer Total SA. BP goals to cut back annual money prices by $6 billion over that interval.
Brent crude dropped to the bottom in nearly 12 years this week and was buying and selling at $31.89 a barrel as of 1:51 p.m. in London. The worldwide benchmark has declined about 15 p.c this 12 months, after falling 35 p.c in 2015.
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