PLEXUS Holdings, the Aberdeen-based oil services firm, has revealed it has cut workforce numbers by around 50 per cent and slashed pay as it plunged deep into the red amid the downturn in the North Sea.

The exploration well engineering specialist told investors it had completed two rounds of job cuts since September as it took increasingly tough action to cope with the turmoil in the area triggered by the crude price slump.

Announcing a £3.5 million loss for the six months to 31 March, the company said: “An initial cost saving exercise was conducted during September 2015. This resulted in 19 redundancies across the business along with other fundamental changes such as the cessation of shift working and overtime.”

The company added: “Since that period, continued falls in the oil (price) led to Plexus embarking on a further, more significant, cost saving exercise which post period end resulted in approximately a further c. 50 redundancies coupled with salary cuts for remaining staff across the business.”

Plexus did not give details of the pay cuts.

The cuts have left Plexus with a staff of around 84 in Aberdeen, where it expanded operations amid the boom in North Sea investment that fizzled out in 2014 as growth in supplies ran well ahead of muted demand.

The announcement provides further dramatic evidence of how cuts in activity by the firms that own oil and gas fields have caused pain across the supply chain. Companies that support activity in areas such as drilling have seen workloads cut and come under pressure to reduce prices for the remaining services and equipment they offer.

Industry leaders reckon 5,500 jobs were shed across the North Sea in the year after the crude price peaked at $115 per barrel in June 2014.

The pace of job cutting has been maintained in recent months with giant producers such as BP and services firms including Wood Group announcing layoffs.

Plexus said revenues fell around 50 per cent, to £6.7m in the six months to 31 March, from £13.5m in the same period of the preceding year.

It noted: “Impact particularly felt in the UK North Sea where it has been reported that investment is expected to fall by almost 90 per cent with fewer exploration wells anticipated than at any time since data started being collected in the late 1970's.”

Revenues in the UK North Sea fell by 85 per cent in the first half, to £0.88m.

Aim-listed Plexus told investors: “While the Company remains committed to distributing dividends to its shareholders, the Directors believe that in the current low oil price environment and resulting reduction in exploration drilling activity it is prudent to suspend the payment of dividends.”

However, chief executive Ben van Bilderbeek, said the company is confident the downturn is cyclical. He noted demand for energy is forecast to rise strongly over the next few decades given growth in emerging economies and fossil fuels will be required to satisfy the lion's share of this growth.

Plexus has been reducing its reliance on the North Sea by winning business in countries such as Malaysia.

It won £8m investment from Jereh of China in July last year.

Mr van Bilderbeek welcomed tax cuts in this month's Budget designed to increase the attractiveness of the North Sea but said George Osborne should have offered incentives to encourage exploration “of the sort that work so effectively in Norway”.

Shares in Plexus Holdings closed down 2.75p, at 52p.