Fears for 100 oil industry jobs in Belfast

Nearly 100 workers tonight faced losing their jobs at an east Belfast company which makes drill bits for the oil and gas industry.

The proposed cut of up to 98 in the 280 workers at Hughes Christensen follows 90 redundancies earlier in the year.

The company is part of US-owned Baker Hughes blamed reduced levels of exploration and development spending by its customers coupled with high stock levels of oil and gas.

It said the two things had resulted in an ongoing worldwide reduction in drilling activity in the oil services sector.

The planned job cuts follow a decision to switch some production work currently done in Belfast to the United States.

The company said the decision had ben taken following an extensive review of its overall manufacturing capacity and alignment of production facilities in relation to markets of sale.

“One outcome of this review is the proposal that all small tricone drill bit production currently performed at Hughes Christensen Belfast, will be transferred to the Woodlands Texas facility, leaving the Belfast plant to focus on the manufacture of medium and large tricone drill bits for the world market, and PDC drill bits for the Eastern Hemisphere,” said a company statement.

It added: “We have approximately 280 employees in Belfast and anticipate that, of those, up to 98 positions could be affected.”

It said the company was committed to responding to potentially affected employees in “ a sensitive, respectful and responsible manner at what we appreciate is a difficult time.”

The company said it was starting the consultation process with workers and unions immediately.