Maersk Drilling says it is taking steps to reduce its offshore crew pool as it stacks North Sea rigs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and crash in oil prices. 

The company said that due the commercial outlook for offshore drilling it expects around 250 to 300 redundancies in the North Sea crew pool in Denmark, Norway and the UK. It is currently in process of initiating consultations with trade unions and employee representatives. 

“Though it’s standard practice in our industry to adjust our workforce to activity levels, it never feels right to say goodbye to good colleagues, especially when so many have walked the extra mile to keep operations running in these very difficult circumstances. However, it’s our responsibility to safeguard our business and we are now taking steps to maintain competitiveness in the challenging market environment,” says CEO Jørn Madsen.

 In a statement, Maersk Drilling said some tenders and projects are being delayed or cancelled.

On April 16, the company announced it received notice of early termination for two drilling contracts involving the semi-submersible Maersk Developer and jack-up rig Maersk Reacher. However, due to early termination fees, the financial impact of the contract terminations on 2020 profitability is expected to be minimal, the company said.