London-based BP plc plans to cut about 1,000 jobs from its Lower 48 operations, after announcing last week that its fourth quarter earnings will be below forecasts. Apparently, no more jobs will be eliminated from the extensive Alaska operations, which were cut 20% last year.

Overall, BP employs almost 40,000 in the United States. Nearly 350 positions will be eliminated from BP’s upstream headquarters in Houston. Another 160 Houston-based employees who work in the Gulf of Mexico fields on- and offshore also will be laid off, according to a BP spokesman. About 70 of the employees now work in BP operations that were sold to Apache Corp. last week.

Of the 20,000 U.S. employees in BP’s downstream operations, up to 500 people will lose their jobs. BP’s Scott Dean said the job cuts, mostly in the Chicago area, are part of BP’s downsizing after merging with Amoco in 1998 and acquiring Arco in 2000. Last October, CEO John Browne outlined a plan to streamline operations following a corporate-wide review. Following several misses last year, new production targets are expected to be issued by the company in February.

In other news, the Financial Times reported last week that an internal e-mail by the president of BP’s Alaska operations indicated that the unit’s future depended on whether the company could improve its Alaska safety record. Apparently, Steve Marshall, president of BP Alaska, told staff in an internal memo that the company has to focus on safety “as if our lives and our future in Alaska depend on it. Because they do.”

Marshall apparently said that BP has to improve its record “legitimately” rather than by covering up incidents, FT reported. The news service alleged that Marshall’s message followed evidence that BP failed to disclose the extent of its responsibility for a well explosion in its Alaska field last August.

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