Aker Solutions to let go up to 200 workers in Norway

Norway’s Aker Solutions today notified employees at its subsea services facility in Ågotnes, Norway, that it would have to lay off between 150 and 200 workers due to a decline in activity in the Norwegian market.

Adjustments will be made through normal employee turnover, reassignments to other parts of the company and dismissals, Aker Solutions said in a statement,

“Our Norwegian subsea services unit has had a slow start to the year as oil companies reduce spending and delay some projects,” said Per Harald Kongelf, head of Aker Solutions in Norway. “This makes it necessary for us to adjust capacity in this area.”

Aker Solutions had about 8,000 subsea area employees at the end of the first quarter of 2015. Approximately 3,000 of these were in Norway and the rest were in countries including Brazil, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, Malaysia and the UK.

While laying off workforce in Norway, the company has said it is expanding internationally “and is well-positioned in key subsea markets.”

Africa accounted for 37 percent of Aker Solutions’ NOK 48 billion order backlog at the end of 2014, compared with 30 percent for Norway, helped by major subsea contracts in Angola and Congo.