Harbour Energy to cut 350 onshore jobs

Harbour Energy said on Wednesday that it plans to cut around 350 jobs, pinning the blame on the government’s energy windfall tax.

In an update in January, the company said it had initiated a review of its UK organisation "to align with lower future activity and investment levels in the country". Harbour said the review was needed because of the energy profits levy, which results in an effective tax rate of 75% in the UK regardless of the level of oil and gas prices in the market or realised.

In its full-year results in March, Harbour said the review was expected to lead to a "significant" reduction in its UK workforce.

Harbour now expects to cut around 350 onshore jobs at its UK business. This is from a baseline of approximately 1,200 employees.

A spokesperson for the group told Sharecast: "We are working hard to mitigate the impact of this reduction, by for example, a recruitment freeze (excepting safety critical and business critical roles) and opening a voluntary redundancy scheme.

"These figures do not include UK-based corporate and international roles, which are still being reviewed. Nor do they include our offshore organisation, where we expect the impact to be significantly lower. We are very conscious of the impact of this news on our people, and we are carrying out the review fairly and with consideration for everyone who is affected."

At 1505 BST, the shares were down 1.6% at 278.60p.