MORE than 40 staff at a North-East subsea firm have lost their jobs.

Reef Subsea UK, in Thornaby, near Stockton, has made 43 people redundant.

The move comes only a month after bosses played down fears over workers’ futures when its Norway-based parent Reef Subsea previously filed for bankruptcy.

Reef Subsea UK insisted it was not in administration, saying it was a separate legal entity to Norway’s Reef Subsea AS and under the control of directors.

However, Dan Butters and Adrian Berry, from Deloitte, have now been appointed joint administrators of the UK business.

Mr Butters said 27 people have been made redundant, with a further 16 given notice before administrators were appointed.

Reef previously told The Northern Echo it employed about 80 people in the region.

He added: “Following the bankruptcy of the wider group, the directors have sought to secure the survival of the business.

“These efforts are ongoing while the administrators trade the business, but unfortunately we have had to make a number of redundancies in order to reduce ongoing costs.

“Our specialist team is supporting those employees affected.”

The company recently completed its largest project to date, when it installed power cables on the £80m Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm, off the North Wales coast, in Liverpool Bay.

However, it posted a pre-tax loss of £15.9m in 2013.

Mel Fitzgerald, Reef Subsea chairman, previously told Norwegian press tough competition was one of the main reasons why the Stavanger-based business was struggling.

He added: “We have worked intensively in recent years to restructure the company and reduce costs and competition.

“We have tried to find solutions together with the central shareholders, but unfortunately we have not managed to get agreement that restructures the company.”

His comments came against a backdrop of falling oil prices, which prompted firms to cancel North Sea projects and make staff redundant.

In January, The Northern Echo revealed 45 jobs were going at Darlington-based DeepOcean UK, after struggling against oil prices and what it claimed was a lack of support from the Government over UK renewable energy work going to foreign rivals.

BP has also announced it will cut 200 jobs and 100 contractor roles in the North Sea, with ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell making similar announcements.