NORTH-EAST jobs could go to India in an engineering firm restructure, it can be revealed.

Amec Foster Wheeler is speaking to Darlington staff about potential redundancies.

The company confirmed up to 45 staff, from back office finance roles, could be affected.

A spokeswoman added the business is reviewing its cost base to remain competitive, confirming jobs could go to India where it already runs an operations centre.

However, she said no final decision has been made, adding the company is still exploring ways of re-deploying workers across operations.

The Northern Echo understands any redundancies would be made in early 2017.

The plans come a year after Amec revealed it had been forced to increase cost-cutting to around £120m by 2017 to overcome tough market conditions, brought on primarily by the oil and gas sector slowdown.

The company’s Darlington site, at Lingfield Point, operates as its European engineering base and employs around 1,000 people.

Housing staff who manage recruitment, as well as support services, such as payroll work, the offices include engineers and project managers, who are involved in sectors such as nuclear, chemical process, renewable energy and power.

The spokeswoman said the latter roles would be unaffected in any changes.

The company was formed after Amec completed a £2bn takeover of Foster Wheeler in a bid to win more oil and gas work.

However, in August, it reported big losses after North Sea successes failed to offset US problems.

According to results for the six months to June 30, revenues increased seven per cent to £2.8bn.

However, it revealed a pre-tax loss of £446m, compared to a profit of £73m in the first six months of 2015, after poor oil and gas trading in the US, which forced officials into senior management changes and reductions in operating units.

In April last year, the company announced a number of its Darlington consultants would play a key role in a £50m BP deal.

Official said staff would back a five-year contract to provide operations and maintenance support to BP’s Forties North Sea Pipeline and the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) terminal, at Seal Sands, near Billingham.

CATS, led by majority owner, Antin Infrastructure Partners, moves gas through 250 miles of pipeline from the Central North Sea to Teesside.

It has the capacity to handle more than 1.7 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas every day and processes the substance for a number of customers, including many of the big energy companies using the North Sea.