north sea oil: shell cuts back
WORKERS, APRIL 2003 ISSUE
SHELL UK, which employs nearly 1500 workers in its North Sea oil operations, has announced that it is to sack 350 of them – leading union representatives to angry protests and warning of safety being jeopardised.
Most workers in the sector are represented by Amicus, and its general secretary, Roger Lyons, raised the spectre of "a Piper Alpha disaster in the making".
The shipbuilding and engineering organiser for GMB Scotland, Jim Moohan, was "extremely concerned about the health and safety implications of this decision" and pointed out the high cost of training in the skills needed to rebuild the sector.
The major loss of confidence in the difficult conditions of the North Sea — in this case the Central Shelf oil fields – both in terms of exploration and investment, could herald preparations for oil companies to quit the area in search of richer pickings in Central Asia, or now perhaps in Iraq.