19th Oct 2015 06:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - The chief executives of Premier Oil PLC and Enquest PLC have predicted that a further 10,000 jobs will be lost in the UK North Sea as the prolonged period of lower oil prices continues, the Financial Times reported Sunday.
The companies are two of the biggest independent oil companies operating in the UK North Sea, and the estimate follows 5,500 job losses in the UK oil sector since late 2014, or 15% of the sector's workforce.
Enquest Chief Executive Amjad Bseisu told the FT he believes that 5,500 figure could as much as triple before the slump in oil prices begins to recover whilst Premier Oil Chief Executive Tony Durrant said the industry is only just starting to make job cuts and said producers need to improve their efficiency.
The UK's North Sea is the most expensive place in the world to extract oil, thanks to high staff costs and declining reserves, which means companies have to spend more to reach what is left.
Those extra costs have left the North Sea more exposed than other oil-producing regions to the tumbling oil price, which has fallen from USD115 a barrel in June 2014 to around USD50 on Monday morning.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/555cd072-5c54-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#axzz3ozRZqHOY
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
PMO.LEnquest