BP to cut 2,500 in Europe

POTSDAM - British Petroleum plans to shed about 2,500 jobs and cut costs by about dollars 300m ( pounds 208m) from its European oil refining and petrol retailing arm in the next two years, writes Neil Thapar.

Rolf Stomberg, chief executive of BP Oil Europe, said yesterday that the division had already reduced costs by about dollars 500m since 1990, under a sweeping restructuring plan.

The new job cuts are expected to take the total at BP's European refining and marketing business to 8,500 by 1995. The division's workforce has fallen from 19,000 in 1990 to 13,000 this year and will fall further to about 11,500.

However, BP is pressing ahead with a dollars 200m expansion in eastern Germany, where it aims to build a 100-strong petrol station network over the next two years.

BP is one of about 160 British companies that have made the UK the biggest investor in eastern Germany. British companies have bought 121 businesses from the Treuhandanstalt, which is privatising former state enterprises.