BP will cut 10,000 jobs from its global workforce to cut costs by £1.9billion a year due to Covid-19 crisis
- Company will cut its top leadership roles by a third amid the pandemic
- Chief Executive says that majority of people affected are office-based
- Announcing the cuts today, the firm said they are likely to get worse
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
The boss of UK oil giant BP has told staff it plans to cut 10,000 jobs from its global workforce after being hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
The company said the move will ‘significantly impact senior levels’ of management in the business, with its top leadership roles to be cut by a third.
BP said the cuts are part of plans for the business to cut its operating costs by 2.5 billion dollars (£1.9 billion) for new financial year, although the cuts ‘will likely have to go even further’.
The company said the move will ‘significantly impact senior levels’ of management in the business, with its top leadership roles to be cut by a third (file image)
In an email to staff, BP chief executive Bernard Looney said: ‘We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP – most by the end of this year.
‘The majority of people affected will be in office-based jobs. We are protecting the frontline of the company and, as always, prioritising safe and reliable operations.’
The company employs 70,000 people across the globe. The job reductions are also part of Looney’s drive to make the 111-year-old oil company more nimble as it prepares for the shift to low-carbon energy, the sources said.
‘It was always part of the plan to make BP a leaner, faster-moving and lower-carbon company,’ Looney said.
Pictured: Chief Executive Bernard Looney, who today announced the cuts to BP
Looney last month announced a large round of senior management appointments, halving the size of BP’s leadership team under his plan to reshape the company’s structure.
Shortly after taking office in February, the 49-year-old CEO said that he was creating 11 divisions to ‘reinvent’ BP and dismantle the traditional structure dominated by its oil and gas production business and its refining, marketing and trading division.
Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil producer, last month said that it will cut between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its global workforce as part of an ongoing restructuring.
Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, has initiated a voluntary redundancy programme.