WOODSIDE CUTS 80 HEADQUARTER JOBS

WOODSIDE Petroleum has cut at least 80 jobs from its Perth headquarters this week as it moves ahead with a plan to slash a third of business costs under interim chief executive Meg O’Neill, according to sources.

About 30 positions have been axed from its geoscience division while the energy giant has also reduced at least 50 more roles across its exploration, logistics and new energies units in the past few days, multiple sources told The Australian.

A number of staff took to LinkedIn to confirm their departure, which follows less than a year after 300 positions were chopped as a result of the rout in oil and gas markets.

The nature of the roles being shed has raised speculation that Woodside may be placing less focus on developing new resources and instead developing known projects like Scarborough and Sangomar in Senegal.

Several hundred more jobs are expected to be lost before the end of the year.

The timing is somewhat curious given Woodside is weighing a major $16bn investment decision on its Scarborough gas field and Pluto plant expansion project.

Woodside on Friday repeated it was focused on costs across the business.