NORTH-EAST workers face an anxious future after a subsea engineering firm revealed thousands of job cuts.

Technip says it will shed 6,000 staff in a bid to to save nearly £600m over the next two years.

The company, which has a plant in Newcastle, has blamed the lower oil price, saying the deflated offshore environment has halted projects, adding it will axe work across the North Sea.

The Northern Echo contacted Technip’s regional operations and its French headquarters over the plans, but did not receive a response.

The firm runs a factory at Walker Riverside through its wholly-owned subsidiary Technip Umbilicals, which designs and produces steel tubes and thermoplastic devices for connecting subsea equipment to oil and gas platforms.

The Northern Echo understands the company employs about 600 people in the region.

Thierry Pilenko, Technip chairman and chief executive, said it was struggling against the impact of the offshore sector’s deceleration, adding the company has been forced to reduce its fleet of vessels.

He said: “The slowdown in the oil and gas industry is prolonged and harsh.

“Therefore, we have decided to accelerate our cost reduction and efficiency measures, which I know will have tough consequences for employees across the group.

“We have built our leadership on sustained investment in key technologies and assets, to create a business with a breadth of skills.

“Our long-term vision is focused on how we can be best positioned to deliver our industry’s needs, to reduce project costs and continue to create value.”

Technip opened its North-East steel plant last year, backed by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund to support more than 160 jobs.

At the time, bosses said it was the most advanced of its kind in the world, adding it would strengthen the firm’s position in the subsea sector by producing longer umbilicals and components needed for companies to operate at greater water depths.

Speaking last year, Jean-Louis Rostaing, Technip Umbilicals' managing director, said: “This investment is aimed at satisfying future market demand for deep water and large complex systems.

“With this fantastic facility, backed by a world-class workforce, we can look forward to the future with great anticipation and confidence.”

Technip employs 38,000 people across 48 countries, and has further UK bases in Aberdeen and London.

Its announcement comes after a number of firms have already slashed jobs and scaled back developments in response to the sunken oil price.

DeepOcean UK, which has bases in Darlington and Teesside, and is known for its specialist trench digging and underwater power cable laying, was previously forced to make 45 redundancies, with North Sea operators BP and Talisman-Sinopec taking similar action.

Scott Macknocher, managing director of Ennsub, which designs and makes systems to deploy underwater remotely-operated vehicles, from a base at Wynyard Business Park, near Stockton, also told The Northern Echo the industry was trapped in a perfect storm that could last more than a year.