UK Oil Jobs Offshore Down a Quarter since 2014
The UK’s offshore oil and gas industry will, by the end of this year, be employing 120,000 fewer people since the peak in 2014 when the oil price was double what it is today. New employment figures based on the latest published data by trade body Oil & Gas UK, following analysis by marketing services company Experian, forecasts that in 2016 just over 330,000 jobs in the UK will be delivered through or supported by oil and gas production, compared with 450,000 two years ago.
Jobs include direct employment by producers and their contractors as well as indirect employment across the extensive supply chain which also exports goods and services overseas.
Jobs supported fell by an estimated 84,000 to around 370,000 in 2015, and are forecast to have fallen a further 40,000 by the end of this year.
UK offshore rig (Credit: Centrica)
OGUK Deirdre Michie said the industry has been spending more than it is earning since the oil price slump towards the end of 2014. "This is not sustainable and companies have been faced with some very difficult decisions. To survive, the industry has had no choice but to improve its performance. It is looking to find efficiencies to restore competitiveness, to attract investment and stimulate activity in the North Sea. With up to 20bn barrels of oil and gas still to recover, this region is still very much open for business.”
Earlier this week, Anglo-Dutch Shell announced bigger-than-expected synergies following its takeover of UK BG, and a cut in its capital and operating expenditures, meaning more redundancies upstream globally.
William Powell