by Jillian Ambrose
Telegraph.co.uk
The UK’s oil and gas industry will lose a total of 120,000 jobs by the end of this year as a result of the market downturn which has slashed value from the struggling sector since mid 2014.
Official figures from trade group Oil and Gas UK have laid bare the full impact of the historic decline in oil market prices. The global price crash has taken a particularly worrying toll on the ‘supermature’ North Sea basin which is saddled with some of the highest costs and lowest production levels in the world.
Oil prices have recovered by 80pc since hitting twelve year lows of $28 a barrel in January but even at a prevailing price of around $50 a barrel oil is worth less than half than what it did 2014 when North Sea jobs stood 450,000.