British oil giant BP is set to lay off nearly 15% of its 70,000 global workers as part of the company’s plan to cut costs and transition toward low-carbon energy. The job cuts are expected to affect about 10,000 people consisting of around 7,500 compulsory redundancies and roughly 2,500 staff with voluntary severance, Reuters reported, based on the company’s memo and sources. According to the report, a BP spokesperson confirmed the voluntary redundancy number.
Many of the reductions will affect office-based employees, including thousands of geologists, scientists, and engineers of BP’s upstream exploration and production division. On the other hand, workers at the company’s frontline production facilities are expected to be unaffected. According to the memo, 2,500 of 23,600 staff eligible for voluntary layoffs, had applied including about 500 senior officers.
Two BP sources said staff who applied voluntary redundancy were mostly offered a-month salary for each year of service. Meanwhile, compulsory redundancy will be based on internal assessments. One of the sources said the most difficult challenge would be retraining long-timers on new roles requiring new skills and knowledge.
