An Aberdeen MP has written to BP asking for “urgent clarity” on whether North Sea jobs will be lost in its latest round of cuts.
Earlier this week the energy giant confirmed around 540 upstream jobs will be cut globally.
It did not confirm how many roles based in Aberdeen will be lost, but said the losses represent around 3% of upstream jobs worldwide.
Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman has now asked BP to announce as soon as possible where they can be expected, and what measures will be taken to redeploy staff.
Similarly, ConocoPhillips last month announced it was cutting 450 jobs in the UK but did not disclose exactly where the axe would fall.
Ms Blackman said: “It simply isn’t acceptable for BP to create so much job uncertainty with this announcement, and I think they urgently need to clarify where these cuts are coming and provide a regional breakdown of them.
“It is unclear how the 3% cut will be broken down worldwide – so we don’t know if that’s 3% of the BP North Sea upstream workforce, or if the percentage of jobs lost in this regional would be higher or lower than that.
“It is vital that BP provides much more detail on how this reduction will look in real terms, and provide clarity on whether or not there will be opportunity for redeployment within the company for employees who may be affected. That information needs to be forthcoming, and this energy giant needs to take a more responsible approach to announcing planned job cuts.”
It is understood many of the reductions expected will be through natural attrition and not back-filling vacancies where possible, as well as demobilisation from projects that are coming to an end.
A spokesman for BP said: “Our priority in situations like this is and always has been to communicate any changes in the organisation and the anticipated impact directly with our staff. We did this on Tuesday at a Town Hall meeting and continue to do so through various follow-up communications. As stated previously, the expected reduction in Upstream roles globally is 3%.”
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