Apache Corporation has made dozens of Aberdeen-based workers redundant after suspending all drilling in the UK North Sea.
The US firm blamed rising costs and “increasingly burdensome tax” in the UK for the cuts, understood to number around 30 workers so far.
But some of those affected blasted it as “very much a political decision” by Apache to try to force the UK Government’s hand over the windfall tax.
Townhall meeting
Energy Voice (EV), sister website to The Press and Journal, understands a townhall meeting was held with employees earlier this week.
Senior bosses from Houston set out plans to focus the business on more lucrative areas globally.
All drilling on the company’s key Beryl and Forties assets in the North Sea is suspended, while Apache is “reassessing investments”.
The firm said it was considering the “increasingly costly and burdensome tax and regulatory regime on our industry”.
It is understood workers in Aberdeen were summoned to HR this week without consultation, told they were being made redundant and escorted off the premises by security.
One worker said it came “out of the blue”, telling EV “the way they’ve handled it has been pretty disgusting to be honest.
“If the oil price was down at 20-30 dollars a barrel you could understand it, but it’s high 70s – they’re still making a chunk of cash out of it.”
Apache sees other global energy locations as more attractive than UK
At Wednesday’s townhall meeting, workers were told investment in the UK would be scaled back, including drilling and small projects amid a bigger focus on cost-cutting.
Opportunities in areas like Suriname, Egypt and onshore US are seen as more attractive to the company.
Apache had already scaled back North Sea drilling, with the termination of a contract for the Ocean Patriot rig.
This latest move means workover drilling on the Beryl and Forties platforms will now also stop.
Windfall tax change came too late to save Aberdeen oil and gas jobs
It comes amid reforms to the windfall tax, with the UK Government today announcing a price floor to the levy.
Apache did not reply to requests for a response to workers’ comments.
In a statement provided earlier, Apache said: “We can confirm the suspension of all platform drilling.
“We are reassessing our investments as we consider the challenging UK macro environment with this increasingly costly and burdensome tax and regulatory regime on our industry.
UK assets ‘less competitive’
“We allocate capital based on the best possible returns. Given the business climate for the oil and gas industry in the UK, these assets have become less competitive in comparison to the rest of our portfolio.”
As of year-end 2022, the UK accounted for 14.4% of the Texas-headquartered firm’s global production.
A spokesperson for Unite the Union said it “will support its members working for Apache, in whatever way we can.”
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