The aftermath of the international downturn in the oil and gas industry in the UK is expected to lead to a total of 120,000 jobs lost by the end of 2016, according to BBC. Oil & Gas UK estimated 84,000 industry employees were laid off in 2015, with 40,000 losses expected this year.
The UK’s biggest oil companies, including Shell, BP, Talisman, Wood Group, and Schlumberger have been making drastic cutbacks. The companies were forced to slash their job number to save on the operation costs and to improve their weak balance sheets.
In an attempt to safeguard the remaining 330,000 jobs that the industry currently supports in the UK and thus resolve this job crisis, representatives and senior authorities from the oil and gas industry are set to meet in Aberdeen and discuss preventive measures that could be considered.
At $28 per barrel, oil prices have hit the lowest level in 12 years in the UK in January 2016. Now, the prices have recovered by 80%, however, such a mild increase does not solve many problems, unlike in 2014, when the offshore industry supported a record high of 450,000 jobs thanks to the price $50 per oil barrel, wrote The Telegraph.
Oil & Gas UK CEO, Deirdre Michie, warned that the industry has been spending more than it is earning ever since the oil price slump in the end of 2014. She was quoted by RT saying: “We cannot underestimate the impact the global downturn in the industry is having on the UK economy, nor the personal toll for those who have lost their jobs, and the effect on their families and colleagues.”
