Offshore staff
LONDON — Harbour Energy, the North Sea's biggest oil and gas producer, told its staff that it plans job cuts in the wake of a windfall tax imposed on the sector last year, the company said on Jan. 18, according to a Reuters report.
The jobs would be cut in Harbour Energy's headquarters in the North Sea hub of Aberdeen, Scotland, but the extent of the cuts is yet to be determined and will be subject to consultations.
The company's website states it has 1,700 employees worldwide.
The job cuts are a further sign of how the windfall tax, aimed at helping the British government deal with soaring energy costs, is deterring investment in the North Sea, one of the world's oldest offshore oil and gas basins, according to the Reuters report.
"Following changes to the EPL, we have had to reassess our future activity levels in the UK... As such, we have initiated a review of our UK organisation to align with lower future activity levels," the company said in a statement to Reuters.
In November 2022, Harbour announced drilling had started on three new wells that will be tied back to the J-Area infrastructure in the UK central North Sea. In the same area and time period, the Jade-JM well came onstream while the Judy-RD well was scheduled to be online before year-end 2022.
01.18.2023
