THE embattled North Sea oil and gas industry has suffered another blow with the announcement of 300 more job losses, this time by Talisman Sinopec Energy UK in Aberdeen.

It follows a similar level of redundancies made public by BP last week. Other companies have already announced job cuts due to the halving of oil prices to below $50 a barrel..

The development came as the political flak over the crisis facing the industry continued and as speculation mounted that David Cameron might use his first expected trip of 2015 to Scotland tomorrow to talk to worried oil and gas chiefs.

Paul Warwick, managing director of Talisman Sinopec, explained the reasons for the job cuts. "Our industry is operating in a mature environment against a backdrop of a declining oil price and ever-increasing operating costs alongside falling production levels, reduction in exploration and asset integrity and maintenance issues. We are not immune to those challenges and are taking appropriate actions to tackle them."

Stressing how the company was supporting the workforce through the job cuts process, Mr Warwick argued the sector needed to be creative and innovative to manage mature assets better and handle decommissioning projects.

On a visit to Aberdeen with Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader, Ed Balls demanded immediate action from the Treasury to help stem the crisis, saying: "We've got to put in place quickly a tax regime, which will give the industry confidence to keep investing and also make sure we get a fair deal for the taxpayer in the decades to come."

The Shadow Chancellor said he had travelled to Europe's oil capital to "put pressure on the Scottish Government to do its bit but also to say that, in Westminster, the Chancellor has got to act".

Mr Balls pointed out that a tax system which made sense at over $100 a barrel needed to change if it was to continue to make sense at below $50.

"That is clearly a UK responsibility for the UK Chancellor. If George Osborne doesn't act, then it will be for the next UK Labour Government to get on and do that," he added.

Mr Murphy called on the Scottish Government to carry out and publish an economic assessment of the impact of the fall in oil prices, saying: "The oil crisis is the biggest threat to jobs in Scotland since Ravenscraig. It is time Scotland's governments treated it like one."

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, who has set up a jobs taskforce to help the industry, has already demanded that the Prime Minister act immediately with, among other things, a reversal in the 12 per cent hike on the profit on oil company taxes the Treasury introduced four years ago.

Commenting on the Shadow Chancellor's remarks, a spokesman for Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Energy Minister, said: "Ed Balls' belated call for urgent assistance from the UK Government to the North Sea industries has far more to do with the upcoming election than any real support for jobs in Scotland.

"If Ed Balls was so concerned about the hike in the supplementary charge that has done such damage to the industry, he and Labour would have voted against it when it was introduced in 2011 as the SNP did; he has done nothing as Shadow Chancellor since then."

Meantime during a Commons debate, Frank Doran, the Labour MP for Aberdeen North, warned the risk of another disaster like Piper Alpha would increase if cutbacks meant safety was not maintained.

"If there is slippage in maintenance through this downturn, the dangers for offshore workers will be significantly increased," he said.

But David Mundell, the Scotland Office Minister, stressed how maintaining safety and protecting assets even in a time of low oil prices was "essential".

He told Mr Doran: "I can assure you the Health and Safety Executive will continue to thoroughly inspect asset integrity issues and raise these with industry at every opportunity to ensure regulatory standards are not compromised."