North Sea oil industry has lost 5,500 since late 2014, OGA says

Britain’s new Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) said the country’s North Sea oil and gas sector has lost over 5,000 jobs since late 2014.

A slump in oil prices, which has seen the price of Brent crude fall 55% since June 2014, has hit operations in the industry hard, leading to the loss of 5,500 jobs, according to a report released on Monday.

Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell have all announced staff cuts in the wake of the decline in oil prices, leading to concerns over an emerging skills gap in the industry.

With UK oil production falling to its lowest level since the mid-1970s, OGA was established in April to ensure North Sea oil companies are able to extract as much oil and gas out of the basin as possible.

"We should be in no doubt about the scale of the challenge ahead," said OGA chief executive Andy Samuel.