Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 11
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
BP-Azerbaijan company is considering various options to improve competitiveness, including the elimination of irrelevant organizational problems and efficiency increase, under the current circumstances, BP-Azerbaijan spokesperson Tamam Bayatli told Trend Dec. 11.
She was commenting on BP's plans on staff reduction voiced by BP chief executive officer Bob Dudley.
"Of course, our organization must be simpler and more rational in accordance with the requirements of the business activity development," she said. "This will ensure its competitiveness. At the same time, this will allow us to focus on the main business tasks, labor security, the reliability of our facilities and operations. Our attention will be focused on these main areas."
"BP remains committed to its obligations as part of the projects implemented by the company in Azerbaijan," she said. "The company will continue to fulfill them."
"The projects implemented by BP in Azerbaijan are long-term and very important," she said. "The company is committed to its obligations as part of the projects. The company will continue fulfilling them. These projects are successfully advanced. Afterwards, they will be implemented in accordance with the existing plans."
BP is involved in the projects of developing the block of oil and gas fields "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli", "Shah Deniz" gas condensate field, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the South Caucasus gas pipeline.
BP will spend $1 billion on making hundreds of job cuts over the next year, in response to the continued slump in global oil prices, Bob Dudley, BP chief executive said earlier, the Guardian reported.
"The cuts will "unlikely to affect people on the platforms," he said. "The cuts will be in the systems that support our operations and where BP has a significant corporate presence, so the US, the UK, Azerbaijan, Germany."
British BP plans to increase the number of local staff working in its structure in Azerbaijan to 90 percent by 2018, regional president of BP in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia Gordon Birrell said earlier.
Birrell noted that the company employs more than 2,900 citizens of Azerbaijan, which is more than 85 percent of the qualified staff of BP in the country.
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Emil Ismayilov is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on
Twitter: @Emilsmail