HUNDREDS of North Sea jobs are to be axed by two major companies,it was revealed yesterday.

Oil giants Taqa and Shell are to cut about 350 jobs despite the government announcing new measures to help the industry last week.

As well as axing 250 North Sea jobs, Shell is set to change workers’ shift patterns. Meanwhile about 100 jobs are to go at Taqa, with the cuts mainly hitting contractors and consultants.

Shell’s cuts are on top of 250 redundancies announced by the company last year and follow job losses at BP and Chevron.

Both Shell and Taqa said the new cuts were being made as a result of the “challenges” facing the industry, as plummeting oil prices combine with increasing production costs.

A spokesperson for Taqa said: “Taqa’s UK North Sea business, along with the industry as a whole, is operating in a challenging environment.

“As part of our focus to ensure Taqa’s sustainable future in the UK, regrettably it is necessary for us to scale back the number of people working with us.

“The impact of these changes will predominately be on contractors and consultants.

“We are currently proposing a reduction of about 100 onshore positions, but the process will take a number of weeks and involve consultation with our workforce. Our workers are fully informed of the proposed changes and we will work to support and guide them through the process.”

At Shell, about 2,400 agency contractors and staff are currently employed in the North Sea business.

Shell’s upstream vice president for the UK and Ireland, Paul Goodfellow, 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 will be implemented without compromising our commitment to the safety of our people and the integrity of our assets.”

The GMB union has reacted angrily to Shell’s announcement, saying it is “miles apart” from the company over plans for shift changes, staffing levels, holiday time and pay. “Unilateral action by employers will make matters worse,” said National officer David Hulse.

Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism Fergus Ewing said he was “very disappointed” to hear about the proposed redundancies. “It’s vital that we provide support and information to those who may be facing uncertainty at the moment over their future job prospects,” he said. “That is why we have created an energy jobs taskforce to support Scotland’s oil and gas sector, which brings together key partners to mitigate the impact of job losses. The taskforce, chaired by Lena Wilson of Scottish Enterprise, has met three times since January and is driving forward an action plan over the coming months to support this important industry.

“The First Minister has also announced a guarantee for Modern Apprentices in Scotland’s oil and gas sector to ensure that any faced with redundancy will be offered alternative employment or continued off-the-job training pending alternative employment.

“This will be an anxious time for those affected and their families. We are also providing support for those employees facing redundancy with our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (Pace) scheme. Yesterday we held a Pace event for the oil and gas sector in Aberdeen, which was attended by over 850 people, and involved employers and advice organisations to assist with skills and employability and ultimately minimise the time thoseaffected by redundancy are out of work.”

The cuts come despite measures introduced by the government in last week’s Budget that were supposed to help companies having problems in the oil and gas industry.

However, industry expert Sir Ian Wood said that while he would expect job losses to continue for some time, they would not be as great as he had feared towards the end of last year.

He said the industry’s prospects were now much better as a result of the tax changes announced last week, although more jobs could go in the short term.

“The position has changed a lot with last week’s Budget,” he said. “At the end of last year and the beginning of this year I saw quite large numbers of job losses not just because the price of oil at 55 dollars a barrel was not viable for the North Sea but also because in the medium-term the prospects were not good because the fiscal rate was not competitive internationally. What happened last week was a significant positive move by the government, and the industry is greatly relieved and buoyed by it.”

Corporation tax was cut from 60 per cent to 50 per cent while the Petroleum Revenue Tax for older fields was cut from 82 per cent to 67 per cent.

Sir Ian said that while the oil price was still “unacceptably” low, the government’s measures would mean the North Sea would become competitive again.