BP is expected to announce job cuts in its North Sea operations on Thursday, the BBC reported.

The British oil major employs nearly 4,000 people in the North Sea, with a further 11,000 elsewhere in the UK, the BBC said.

BP said in December that it will cut thousands of jobs cut across its global oil and gas business following steep falls in oil prices.

The oil giant has warned that plans to streamline its business will cost it $1billion over the next year. The restructuring bill will reflect the need to downsize its operations following $43 billion worth of divestments since the Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010. The move to simplify the business comes with the price of oil now down 40 per cent below its level earlier last year.

Agencies