MORE Scots jobs could go as BP cut another 3,000 jobs globally after reporting an annual loss of £4.5bn, the largest for at least 20 years.
The energy firm said the impact in Scotland and the UK from the latest announcement "is not expected to be significant" after it emerged earlier this month that it was to cut one in five North Sea jobs. The company would not be drawn on the numbers of posts that could be lost.
But union leaders remain concerned about how the announcement will affect the North Sea.
The fresh job losses are in BP's downstream operations, which refines and markets crude oil - by the end of 2017.
The job cuts come as the cost of a barrel of Brent crude has slumped from $77 in the final three months of 2014 to $34.
Oil and Gas UK has previously estimated that around 20 percent of UK production is uneconomic at a $50-per-barrel oil price.
It brings to 7000, the job losses announced globally so far this year, having announced 4,000 job cuts last month in its upstream unit, which deals with oil exploration and production, as part of the group’s $2.5bn restructuring programme.
First Minister job Nicola Sturgeon had described job losses in the North Sea in January as a "crisis" for those affected but insisted that the sector had a "strong future ahead".
Sources say that staffing in Scotland that could potentially end up being affected by the latest announcement include those working on the Forties pipeline and fuel tanker drivers.
Unite national officer Tony Devlin said: "We will all be facing extremely concerning times.
"Offshore has already been devastated. How this is likely to pad out after today's announcement, we don't know yet.
"This has been a broad announcement about profits, and over the coming days and weeks we will start to learn what that turns out to be.
"I have been actively chasing it up to get the finer detail since the numbers came out."
BP's additional job cuts take its total cull to 11,000 since the start of 2015, with the group having axed 4,000 last year and planning another 7,000 over the next two years.
The latest cuts are known internally and would impact across the board in the downstream arm.
A BP spokesman said: "The expectation is that 3000 jobs within our downstream business will also be going by year end 2017.
"Whilst it's a shame we have to cut down on staff, we have very few downstream operations in the North Sea area. We don't have any refineries or chemical plants in that area.
"Although we aren't putting a finer point on it regarding locations or assets, impact in the UK is not expected to be significant.
"We have some storage terminals, of course, but that's the extent of it."
BP took a charge of $443m relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which takes its cumulative pre-tax charge for the incident to $55.5bn.
The company is expected to wrack up even more losses in future – but at a lower level – from the Deepwater Horizon accident that occurred in April 2010. It led to 11 men losing their lives and massive environmental damage was done to the beaches of the southern US.
BP chief executive Bob Dudley believed the firm has scope for staff cuts as it streamlines system changes that were required after the oil spill.
"We became a very complicated company - we had duplication on many fronts, a lot of checking and rechecking and reassuring… and I think the company has its confidence back now," he said.
He believed oil prices could rise to levels between $50-$60 per barrel by the end of the year.
"2016 is going to be tough - it’s going to continue to be tough - particularly in the first half," Mr Dudley said.
"But we do not expect oil prices to remain lower forever. We’ve got a very clear course for the medium term, it’s based around a financial framework that rebalances the organic sources and uses of cash for 2017 in a $60 world. If it’s below $60 I fully expect costs to also be down," he added.
When the oil giant announced axing of 4,000 posts in its global oil exploration and drilling business, last month, it was said the majority of the staff and contractor posts would go this year, with the rest expected to be lost by the end of next year.
The UK government's Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, was expected to hold talks with the Scottish government's energy minister, Fergus Ewing, over the announcement.
The extent of the losses came about as BP was hit by billions of dollars in writedowns and restructuring charges in the wake of the crude price collapse.
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