LONDON: Total has unveiled plans to cut 180 jobs in the UK, reduce refinery capacity and slow spending on North Sea fields after it crashed to a $5.7bn final-quarter loss. The company, which has just come under new leadership, said it would also sell off $5bn worth of assets worldwide and cut exploration costs by 30%. It has taken huge financial writedowns.
The jobs are to be axed and the capacity reduced by half at the Lindsey refinery in Linconshire, once the centre of a huge labour dispute over the use of foreign workers. Total, which once tried to sell off the facility, said the staff working at the elderly plant would fall from 580 to 400 by the end of next year but that almost £200m could be spent by 2020 improving the refinery’s efficiency.
