NORTH Sea veteran Bruce Dingwall has moved to a non-executive role at Trinity Exploration and Production amid cost-cutting moves at the oil and gas firm.

Trinity said Mr Dingwall has assumed the role of non-executive chairman of the board of the Trinidad-focused company. He was previously executive chairman of Trinity, which has an office in Edinburgh.

Noting the company is focused on reducing operational and general administration costs, Trinity said its non-executive directors have elected to suspend all fees relating to their roles.

Mr Dingwall was one of the founders of North Sea-focused Venture Production, which he left in 2004. Venture was bought by Centrica for £1.3 billion in 2009.

Mr Dingwall developed Trinity out of assets in Trinidad and Tobago acquired from Venture in 2005.

Trinity's chief executive, Joel "Monty" Pemberton said yesterday: "Trinity has reacted quickly to continued global commodity price volatility. We have reduced the overheads in our business and cut back on discretionary costs, and as a result have seen a substantial fall in our general and administrative and operating costs."

Aim-listed Trinity made an operating loss of $124m (£81m) in 2014, compared with a profit of $50.4m the previous year. The company wrote $96m off the value of its portfolio in 2014 to reflect the fall in oil prices since June. It also wrote off $38m exploration costs.

However, Mr Pemberton said the company's core producing asset base continues to yield solid production levels from which the company achieved robust cash conversion levels in 2014.

He added that a strategic review initiated by Trinity in April is well underway. The board is considering a number of options to maximise and ensure long term value for Trinity's shareholders.