Major North Sea oil firm Harbour Energy axing 350 Aberdeen jobs in response to windfall tax

A major North Sea oil firm has confirmed it is set to axe 350 onshore jobs in Aberdeen, as a result of the windfall tax.

Harbour Energy, which employs around 1,200 workers in the Granite City, told STV News it had briefed employees on the job cuts on Tuesday.

The firm announced in January that it was reviewing its business because of the Energy Profits Levy.

“When we announced the review in January, we said that as a result 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, we have had to reassess our future activity level in the UK,” a spokesperson said.

“At our full year results in March, we explained this would ‘lead to a significant reduction in our UK workforce’.

“Yesterday, we confirmed that we expect to have around 350 fewer onshore jobs in our UK business unit, from a baseline of approximately 1,200.”

The company said it will be putting in place a recruitment freeze – except for on safety and business critical roles – alongside opening a voluntary redundancy scheme.

The spokesperson continued: “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.”

The Energy Profits Levy was introduced last year after the war in Ukraine saw oil prices increase and some oil firms announced record profits.

It has taken the overall tax rate for oil firms to 75%.