An energy giant with more than 700 staff in the North-east is set to axe 450 jobs across the UK.

ConocoPhillips confirmed it plans to drop more than a third of its staff, more than half of whom work in Aberdeen.

The move is in response to the firm halting oil production in the southern North Sea.

A spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips said: “It is anticipated that around 450 positions will be lost across ConocoPhillips’ UK assets between October 1 and April 2020.

“This is following a voluntary redundancy programme being carried out due to cessation of our southern North Sea production through the Theddlethorpe Gas Terminal later this year.”

The spokeswoman also said it was too early to say how many jobs would be lost in Aberdeen.

Jake Molloy, regional organiser for trade union RMT said: “This is more disappointing news.

“It flies in the face of countless analysts who said that we’ve turned the corner.

“I’m sure there are a lot of worried workers, that have the dark cloud of redundancy and termination hanging over them.”