Oil major BP said deeper cuts could be made to its 2015 budget on the back of OPEC’s recent position and falling oil prices.
The company has already announced up to $1billion in restructuring costs as it cuts thousands of jobs across its global oil and gas business.
BP head of upstream, Lamar McKay, announced the company’s future plans at a meeting of investors in London.
Earlier this week, the company said it would be speeding up the rate of job losses across BP in the UK and abroad.
Mr McKay said: “Given the recent position taken by OPEC and with oil prices where they are today, we will continue to review this further.
“A lot depends on the pace of deflation and the benefits of balancing timing investments and opportunities to leverage the deflationary curve.
“In addition to industry price deflation, BP will also benefit from the greater focus on streamlining activity that we began some 18 months ago in response to resizing the group.”
During the presentation yesterday, BP said reductions of 1,000 staff would take place by the end of this year, while a further 1,200 agency staff would also go as it begins to downsize personnel numbers.
The restructuring costs are expected to be spread across all sectors, including oil exploration and production, refining, trading and administration.
BP said deepwater oil would continue to be important as it looks to extend the life of its existing assets in Angola and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as exploring new plays in Brazil.
It will also continue to “make the most” of assets in the North Sea and through giant oil fields in Iraq and longer term Arctic options.
Over 40% of the projects are also linked to new gas value chains spanning LNG with further opportunities in areas such as Alaska.
Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court threw out an appeal by BP following a settlement agreement over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.
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