North Sea firm blames windfall tax as dozens of jobs to be cut

EMPLOYEES at a firm involved in the North Sea oil and gas industry could be axed from their jobs.

The firm, Well-Safe Solutions based out of Aberdeen, employs around 400 people. It has announced it will downsize its workforce due to tax pressures.

It was announced by the company that 45 onshore jobs could be lost as a result of the “knock-on effects” of the windfall tax on decommissioning projects.

Well-Safe Solutions and its employees are now carrying out a consultation in a hopeful bid to save as many jobs as possible.

It was Chancellor Rachael Reeves who announced last year that the tax levy on North Sea firms would increase from 35% to 38%.

A spokesperson from the firm said: “The knock-on effects of the Energy Profits Levy have seen spend delayed on decommissioning across the industry, which is affecting both our rig and engineering activity.

“It’s with regret that Well-Safe Solutions confirms its intention to reduce positions aboard the WellSafe Guardian while it is on standby.”

“We must also resize our onshore team to reflect the reduction in activity throughout 2025.”

As revenue continues to fall for North Sea oil and gas companies, expenses and jobs have been continually cut as the industry declines.

In November, US company Apache, which employs almost 500 workers in Scotland, confirmed it would end operations in 2029 due to the energy profits levy rendering their viability “uneconomic”.

Despite this downturn for the North Sea oil and gas industry, Rachael Reeves and ministers confirmed on Wednesday that discussions are taking place to introduce a fresh windfall tax when the energy profits levy expires in 2030.