Austrian Oil and Gas Firm Set to Axe Jobs Globally

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Austrian oil, gas and chemicals group OMV plans to cut 2,000 of its 23,000 worldwide staff, the Kurier newspaper reported on Thursday evening.

Citing staff unions, the paper said the company's Romanian subsidiary Petrom SNPP.BX would be especially severely hit, with cuts also planned at its refinery in southern Germany and in Slovakia.

Its chemicals subsidiary Borealis - due to merge with the chemicals business of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), OMV's main shareholder - would be unaffected.

Some 400 of the company's 5,400 positions in Austria would be scrapped, with the company planning to make the cuts "as socially aware as possible", the newspaper reported.

OMV declined to comment on the report.

Labelling the plans a "severe blow" to the Austrian economy, the GPA union warned that industrial action could follow if OMV did not present a "fair" offer to departing staff.

"The possible loss of highly qualified staff is a major loss for Austrian industry," it added.

(Reuters - Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)