ROYAL Dutch Shell has announced plans to close the BG North Sea head office in Aberdeen where around 300 people work in a move which is expected to lead to further job cuts in the city.
The Anglo Dutch oil giant will run the enlarged North Sea Business formed by the recent £35bn takeover of BG from its office in the Tullos area of Aberdeen.
Led by chief executive Ben van Beurden, Shell said all 300 BG staff will relocate to Tullos initially. They will be able to apply for redundancy under a voluntary severance programme which is expected to result in some jobs being cut.
Shell said it could not predict the outcome of the severance programme but had no plans to make any posts in Aberdeen redundant on a compulsory basis.
The company said previously that it expected to shed 2,800 jobs globally following the takeover of BG, with a focus on areas of duplication. It said yesterday that this target has not changed.
Shell has cut 500 jobs in the North Sea since the crude price started tumbling in June 2014, out of 7,500 globally.
The downturn has taken a heavy toll on the North Sea. Oil and gas firms shed around 5,500 jobs in the area in the year after the crude price started falling. They have continued to cut jobs in recent months.
Shell may update on its plans for the enlarged North Sea operation in its first quarter results next week.
Directors have said Shell will focus investment on the big new fields it is developing off Shetland. They want to cuts its exposure to mature North Sea fields.
Shell employs 2,000 people at Tullos.
It will close BG’s head office in Berkshire, where 800 people work, this year.
BG’s Manchester office, where 500 people work, will be closed by the end of next year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here