BP cutting 4,700 jobs worldwide as part of cost-saving drive

LONDON (AP) - U.K.-based oil company BP is cutting 4,700 jobs worldwide and a further 3,000 contractor roles as part of a cost-saving drive.

In an email to staff on Thursday that has been seen by The Associated Press, CEO Murray Auchincloss said the job losses "account for much of the anticipated reduction this year.”

The reductions amount to just over 5% of BP’s 90,000 worldwide employees. Auchincloss's memo said that about 2,600 of the contractors involved in the job cuts have already left the business.

Last October, the company said it had identified $500 million of cost savings to be delivered this year, a quarter of the $2 billion-target set in April by the end of 2026.

Auchincloss said that the company is "focusing resources on our highest-value opportunities" and that it has stopped or paused 30 projects since June.

The reductions come as BP tries to bring more digital capabilities into the business, with artificial intelligence increasingly playing a role in engineering and marketing operations.

In April, Auchincloss announced a plan to make savings of $2 billion (1.6 billion pounds) by the end of 2026.

The plan is designed partly to reinvigorate the company's flagging share price, which has fallen about 20% since last spring.

BP also has pulled back from a number of renewable energy projects, and according to media reports, abandoned a previous plan to cut oil and gas output by 40% by 2030.

Auchincloss, however, said that the company was still "uniquely positioned to grow value through the energy transition," but that it needed "to keep improving our competitiveness and moving at the pace of our customers and society."

It comes days after BP delayed an investor event due to be held in New York to allow the CEO to recover after a medical procedure. Its scheduled capital markets event that was due on Feb. 11 has been postponed until Feb. 26 and will take place in London "to ensure his full recuperation.”