BP is planning cut 600 jobs in Germany, the local head of BP told the WAZ daily in an interview published on Wednesday, as the British oil giant steps up cost-cutting amid plunging profits. "We are trying to avoid straight sackings but we can't guarantee that we'll manage," Uwe Franke was quoted as saying in the interview.
Franke said 340 of the job cuts would occur at the Gelsenkirchen refinery. BP on Tuesday reported higher than expected third-quarter net profits and said it would slash 4.0 billion dollars (2.7 billion euros) in costs this year. The company cut its headcount by 3,000 people in 2008 and is on course to shed another 5,000 positions this year.