By DARA BUTTERFIELD

KCA Deutag has become the latest North Sea operator to announce job cuts due to the collapse in oil price. The company is to cut up to 200 North Sea offshore workers and up to 30 support jobs in Aberdeen.
KCA Deutag is also proposing to cut staff salaries across the board by 5% in order to “maintain competitiveness while protecting as many jobs as possible”. The business has said that 500 jobs spanning 20 countries were “at risk”.
Norrie McKay, Chief Executive, said: “KCA Deutag continued its growth in 2014 and maintaining this forward momentum will be challenging in 2015 in this new oil price environment.
“As a result we commenced the review of our operations to reduce our cost base in line with expected levels of drilling activity.
“We have proposed a 5% reduction in staff salaries to enable us to retain as many talented people in our business as possible to ensure we are well placed when market conditions improve.
“Our priority has been to minimise additional job losses.
“There will be some roles at risk of redundancy, but where we can redeploy staff we will.”
The company employs 10,000 people worldwide – including 1,200 people in its North Sea offshore business.