By Justin Scheck
LONDON-- BP PLC Chief Executive Bob Dudley told staff in a
Monday memo that the company would freeze 2015 base pay, part of a
larger round of cost savings and cuts the company has undertaken as
oil prices remain at less than half the level of mid-2014, a BP
spokesman said.
"We see this as a prudent response to the currently challenging
market environment in which BP operates," the spokesman said.
Oil companies big and small are struggling with costs amid the
sharp drop in oil prices. But BP had been selling assets and
pushing to rein in outlays since before prices started to weaken in
the middle of last year. Since selling more than $40 billion in
assets after its 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of
Mexico, BP has significantly reduced its oil-and-gas
production.
The company more recently said it was embarking on staffing cuts
in such places as the U.K.'s North Sea, and considering other
measures to bring down spending.
BP said in December it expects to book restructuring charges of
about $1 billion between the end of 2014 and through 2015, and said
the company could reduce capital expenditures this year by up to $2
billion, after having initially planned to spend at least $24
billion.
Write to Justin Scheck at justin.scheck@wsj.com
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