350 oil jobs to go in Aberdeen as firm cuts back
Harbour Energy decision comes following review of business operations
Last updated 5th Apr 2023
Oil giant Harbour Energy's cutting 350 onshore jobs in Aberdeen, blaming the windfall tax.
The decision comes following a review of its business operations after the Energy Profits Levy was imposed.
Firm "had to reassess future activity level"
"When we announced the review in January, we said that as a result of the energy profits levy, which results in an effective tax rate of 75% in the UK regardless of the level of oil and gas prices in the market or realised, we have had to reassess our future activity level in the UK. At our full year results in March, we explained this would ‘lead to a significant reduction in our UK workforce’.
Yesterday, we have confirmed that we expect to have around 350 fewer onshore jobs in our UK business unit, from a baseline of approximately 1,200.
Harbour Energy's mitigation measures
We are working hard to mitigate the impact of this reduction, by for example, a recruitment freeze (excepting safety critical and business critical roles) and opening a voluntary redundancy scheme. These figures do not include UK-based corporate and international roles, which are still being reviewed. Nor do they include our offshore organisation, where we expect the impact to be significantly lower. We are very conscious of the impact of this news on our people, and we are carrying out the review fairly and with consideration for everyone who is affected.”