Ministers must “face up” to oil giants or face permanent damage to Britain’s offshore industry, union reps urged yesterday after BP announced plans to slash 300 jobs.

Two-hundred onshore jobs and a further 100 contractor roles face the axe.

Hundreds more posts could be on the line if energy companies continue to reduce their work in the North Sea.

The announcement followed a dramatic fall in the price of oil — down from £75.90 a barrel before the summer to just £30.30.

Union reps will meet with bosses’ club UK Oil and Gas this morning to urge them not to proceed with the hasty destruction of the industry and warn against slashing workers’ terms and conditions.

The meeting comes ahead of a summit on the future of North Sea oil to be held in Aberdeen next month, bringing together government officials, bosses, local politicians and workers’ reps.

There are fears that dozens of rigs could be “cold stacked” — mothballed with a skeleton staff — or “hot stacked” — left idle, with a proportion of the crew laid off.

RMT, which represents offshore workers alongside Unite and the GMB, said rig staff had been told shift patterns will be changed from two on, three off to equal time on and off.

The union fears this could lead to a “clear escalation of risk.”

BP blamed “well-documented challenges of operating in this maturing region” and “toughening market conditions.”

But speaking from Aberdeen, Unite regional officer Tommy Campbell told the Star that large oil companies had a “social responsibility” to keep smaller companies in business during tough times.

“The big major oil companies hold the financial key, and they’re making huge sums of money,” he said.

“The government needs to face up to the big oil companies. They need to live up to their social responsibilities to make sure companies and contractors don’t lose out.

“We need state intervention at both Scottish and UK-level to minimise the impact on workers, to maintain jobs and skills in the offshore sector and to protect the health and safety maintenance regimes to ensure there isn’t a serious risk of accident in the future.”

RMT regional organiser Jake Molloy slammed bosses for deploying “the slash and burn approach of yesteryear.”

He said: “We anticipate this is just the beginning of BP cuts as we’ve seen the rest of the operators announce further cuts to offshore staff which will have a knock-on effect with the supply chain and everything else.”

Aberdeen Labour councillor Willie Young, one of the organisers of the upcoming summit, told the Star the event “cannot be a talking shop” and said the debate must focus on ensuring proper infrastructure around the city to keep the industry there.

Oil and Gas UK called for a massive tax handout by slashing the top rate of tax on oil from 80 per cent to 30 per cent.

The Westminster government has hinted at a cash boon for oil firms in its final budget, and SNP Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said the two governments should work together to let companies off as much tax as possible, claiming that they would otherwise cut investment.

BP’s decision follows job cuts at Shell and Chevron last year.