Tullow Oil has started a redundancy consultation process with the 140 staff employed in its Dublin offices, which is likely to result in more than a third of them losing their jobs. Several staff were informed yesterday that their roles will be under threat once the 30-day consultation concludes.

The company, which recently reported a loss of about $2 billion, is in the midst of a $500 million cost-cutting drive after the price of oil halved since last summer, devastating the share prices and revenues of oil explorers.

The company is readjusting its cost base to cope with a long-term oil price of $50 a barrel, and had previously indicated that jobs would be lost across its operations, including Dublin. “Tullow confirms that it has begun a period of consultation with its employees as part of the group-wide programme to increase efficiency and reduce costs,” it said yesterday.

As part of the effort to simplify and scale back some of its activities, Tullow is targeting cuts at its exploration activities, in favour of boosting low-cost oil production in Africa.

Its Dublin office contains a large number of geologists and other scientists, who would be heavily involved in the exploration side of the business.

The company has engaged in redundancy consultation with workers across its global network. Local reports in Ghana, for example, said it was planning to lay off a large number of its workers there.