UK-BASED TULLOW
OIL PLANS JOB CUTS AS OIL HITS SIX YEAR LOWS
January 13, 2015
UK-based independent Tullow Oil is reportedly planning
to cut an unspecified number of jobs by the end of the first quarter amid
sinking crude prices.
The company is currently undertaking a review of
staffing levels and could present its headcount reduction plan as early as next
month.
“There will be a reduction in head count.
Unquestionably, there will be a smaller Tullow at the end of this major
streamlining process,” an unnamed source told the Telegraph.
Tullow has not commented on the reports.
Several companies including Houston-based Halliburton
and Royal Dutch Shell have announced layoffs in an effort to combat anemic oil
prices and rising operational expenses.
UK based companies are asking chancellor of the
exchequer George Osborne to cut drilling taxes to help offset low operating
cash flow and an earnings squeeze.
Operators in the UK North Sea were already contending
with rising operations costs, slumping output and declining reserves before oil
prices began to plummet last year.
Wood Mackenzie said if prices remain under $60 per
barrel upstreams could cut investment in the North Sea down to $10 billion this
year from $19 billion in 2014.
A survey conducted by Rigzone showed that over two third
of oil and gas workers in Scotland and the UK North Sea are worried about the impact
low oil prices will have on offshore projects within the next five years.