"We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP - most by the end of this year."
British oil giant BP announced Monday that it will cut around 10,000 jobs mostly by the end of this year as the company was hit heavily by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP - most by the end of this year," said Bernard Looney, the chief executive, in a public statement, adding that "the majority of people affected will be in office-based jobs."
Noting the oil industry and BP have been impacted heavily as part of the "widespread economic fallout", Looney said the oil price having "plunged well below the level we need to turn a profit".
"We are spending much, much more than we make - I am talking millions of dollars, every day," he said. "And as a result, our net debt rose by 6 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter."
To tackle the crisis, Looney announced that the firm is working to "bring down the capital expenditure by 25 percent this year", which is a reduction of around 3 billion dollars.
"So we are driving down those operating costs by 2.5 billion dollars in 2021 - and we will likely have to go even further," he added.
In late April, BP revealed a profit plummet in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 as the company was devastated by unprecedented supply and demand disruptions amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The company's financial reports showed the underlying replacement cost profit -- its definition for net income -- dropped to 0.8 billion U.S. dollars for Q1, far lower than 2.4 billion dollars for the same period a year earlier.
Headquartered in London, BP is a multinational oil and gas company, with over 70,000 employees operating in around 80 countries worldwide.
Editor:Cherie
