Hundreds more oil jobs to go

Shell is to cut 250 jobs in its North Sea operations and introduce changes to shift patterns, the company has announced.

The oil giant said the plans will affect staff and agency contractors.

Staff and agency contractors based in Aberdeen and on installations in the North Sea were told of the plans during a meeting today.

Paul Goodfellow, Shell's upstream vice president for the UK and Ireland, said:

The North Sea has been a challenging operating environment for some time.

Reforms to the fiscal regime announced in the Budget are a step in the right direction, but the industry must redouble its efforts to tackle costs and improve profitability if the North Sea is to continue to attract investment,''

Current market conditions make it even more important that we ensure our

business is competitive. Changes are vital if it is to be sustainable. They willbe implemented without compromising our commitment to the safety of our people

and the integrity of our assets.''

The cuts are in addition to 250 job losses announced last August.

Meanwhile TAQA is consulting staff on a hundred proposed redundancies.