Chevron to cut 225 jobs in North Sea oil operations

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By Ron Bousso

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. will cut about 225 jobs in its North Sea oil operations after reviewing its business in the region where high costs have undermined some field developments.

The second largest U.S. oil company will reduce by around one fifth its Aberdeen, Scotland-based oil and gas exploration operations headcount, it said in a statement to Reuters. The jobs will include contractors, employees, and expatriates.

Chevron, like many of its peers, has been under heavy pressure from shareholders to cut spending after seeing disappointing earnings and plans to sell about $10 billion of assets in the next three years.

Chief Executive John Watson said in March that most of the new asset sales will be uncompetitive assets in the company's oil and natural gas exploration and production business.

Chevron said it will continue to focus on its flagship projects in the North Sea, including the Rosebank and Enochdu oil fields and the Alder oil and gas field.

Last November, however, Chevron said the development of the Rosebank project, located west of Shetland in the UK North Sea, was not economically attractive.

"Chevron Upstream Europe (CUE) is reorganizing its business unit in Aberdeen... As a result of the review, CUE expects reductions of approximately 225 positions," it said.

"Chevron's organisational design will be more asset-based with a continuing focus on its operations and progressing its major capital projects."

Chevron is scheduled to report quarterly results on August 1. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Keiron Henderson and Elaine Hardcastle)