BG Group confirms job losses

Problems in Egypt lead to voluntary redundancy programme

Oil and gas exploration firm BG Group is to cut jobs from its Reading HQ  after slashing production targets because of continued problems in Egypt.

The company confirmed that it had invited employees at its Reading headquarters to apply for voluntary redundancy, although it said there was no target for the number. Other sources have reported that up to 300 jobs need to be cut. 

Some 1,100 people work at the company's office in Reading. It employs 1,500 people in the UK and 5,200 worldwide.

BG Group said the redundancies could come from any area of the business. It said: “As part of looking at how to simplify our business we have invited our UK contracted employees for a voluntary redundancy process. 

"To be clear, it is an entirely voluntary process, no decisions have been made and there is no target for the number of applications."

In January BG Group's shares tumbled after it warned of problems in Egypt, one of the company's biggest production areas - complaining that too much of its gas was being diverted into domestic markets instead of being made available for exports.

It said these would result in output this year being in the region of between 590,000 and 630,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared with the 650,000 that had been expected in the City.

BG was created in 1997 when British Gas demerged into two separately listed companies, with Centrica having responsibility for the retail side of the business.