THE continuing crisis in the offshore oil and gas sector has been blamed by a Norwegian company for its decision to axe hundreds of jobs around the world, including 100 in Aberdeen and London.
Service group Aker Solutions announced yesterday that it would lay off around 650 people in its maintenance, modifications and operations (MMO) sector, and will temporarily lay off a further 70 employees in Norway.
Around 300 engineering and project management staff in the Norwegian MMO business may be affected.
A spokesman for Aker in Aberdeen said: “Aker Solutions today informed employees of the need to reduce the company’s workforce capacity. About 650 positions, mainly in Norway, the UK and India, may be affected.
“The adjustments are being made because of the continued market slowdown and as part of a global reorganisation that will strengthen the company’s competitiveness. Around 100 positions may be affected in Aberdeen and London.”
The company added that the cuts would be made through normal employee turnover and reassignments to other parts of the company, as well as redundancies.
Last March, Aker said it planned to make 600 further job cuts across Norway to streamline costs.
The move by Aker Solutions came as the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) revealed that more than 120 ideas to reduce decommissioning costs had emerged from a hackathon it held last year.
In its report the OGA said more than 30 of the ideas were considered to have “real practical value”. These would be further appraised and progressed with operators in a bid to meet the agency’s target of reducing the costs of decommissioning by more than a third (35 per cent).
“The Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) UK Strategy places on obligation on all parties to ensure that all viable options are explored for infrastructure use prior to decommissioning and that decommissioning is then executed in the most cost effective way without prejudice to, and in balance with, the maximisation of value from economically recoverable reserves,” said the OGA.
“There is an urgent need to identify new technological solutions that will bring cost efficiencies into the well plug and abandonment (P&A) market.
“Well P&A accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the overall costs associated with decommissioning in the Southern North Sea (SNS).
“There is therefore an enormous opportunity for the supply chain and a significant upside for both government and operators if innovative technological solutions and cost efficiencies can be uncovered and fast tracked into the industry.”
It added: “The decommissioning environment is different to what industry has faced before, this is not business as usual and it is clear there are many good ideas within the supply chain to help operators reduce their decommissioning costs.
“This represents an opportunity to develop the diversity and capabilities of the well P&A supply chain, and must be embraced and supported by the operators, regulators and wider industry. The real value of the collective thinking which shone through at the hackathons has provided a platform to build on. Action is required now in laying the foundations for a highly competitive and highly capable decommissioning sector for the whole of the UKCS.”
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