BP to lay off 10,000 workers due to depressed oil industry

June 8 (UPI) -- BP said Monday it will cut about 10,000 jobs as it contends with lower oil prices and depressed demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.

BP CEO Bernard Looney said in a memo the company will shed nearly 15 percent of its workforce, mostly among senior, office-based staff. About 400 of its most senior workers will lose their jobs.

"The oil price has plunged well below the level we need to turn a profit," Looney wrote. "We are spending much, much more than we make -- I am talking millions of dollars, every day."

Senior executives who remain won't get a pay increase at least through March 2021, Looney wrote, adding it's also "very unlikely" cash bonuses will be given this year.

When he was appointed CEO in February, Looney announced a corporate reorganization aimed at streamlining BP's operations and promised to make it largely carbon-neutral by 2050.

Oil prices fell below $20 per barrel in April but have since rebounded some. Brent crude was trading at $68 per barrel the first week of January.

The pandemic, however, is giving a push to BP's plans to transition away from fossil fuels.

"The broader economic picture and our own financial position just reaffirm the need to reinvent BP," Looney wrote. "While the external environment is driving us to move faster -- and perhaps go deeper at this stage than we originally intended -- the direction of travel remains the same."