18th Jan 2023 15:53
(Alliance News) - Harbour Energy PLC on Wednesday told staff it is planning to cut jobs, according to sources, as the business confirmed it was reviewing its organisation in the country.
Harbour Energy is the biggest independent oil and gas producer in the UK North Sea and is largely based in the country, although it has some overseas operations.
It employs around 1,500 people in the UK and said that it was reassessing its activity levels in the country after the hiking of the windfall tax late last year.
The business said that the changes meant that it must scale back investment in oil and gas exploration, among other things.
The business is also understood to have told staff that redundancies might come, although a spokesperson would not provide any numbers.
"Following changes to the [Energy Profits Levy], we have had to reassess our future activity levels in the UK," Harbour Energy said to the PA news agency.
"We will continue to support investment on the many attractive opportunities within our existing portfolio, but we are scaling back investment in other areas such as new exploration licensing.
"As such, we have initiated a review of our UK organisation to align with lower future activity levels."
Harbour Energy recently said to trade publication Energy Voice in December that it would not bid for new licences in the North Sea in the ongoing licensing round due to the windfall tax.
In November, UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt added another 10% on the tax that oil and gas producers have to pay on their windfall profits, taking it to 75%.
The companies can offset most of this extra tax if they invest enough in the UK.
Shares were 0.1% higher at 324.07 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
source: PA
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