BP to cut around 4,000 jobs

Oil company BP announced that it would be cutting around one-sixth of its workforce (or 4,000 jobs) from its exploration and production unit over the course of next year.

The downsizing is due to the continuing oil price slump and the costs of rehabilitating the Gulf of Mexico after the 2010 oil spill.

The cut will affect employees in BP’s exploration units in Angola, Azerbaijan, and the US. Around 600 people in the North Sea BP operations. To date, the oil company has 3,000 employees in the North Sea and 24,000 employees under the exploration and production unit worldwide.

Aside from BP, rival oil companies are also cutting jobs due to the price slump.