By Ian Findlay, industrial reporter

THE ABERDEEN-BASED Wood Group is to cut up to a further 70 jobs from its sites in Dundee, it emerged last night.

The energy services group confirmed it wants to axe the posts from two subsidiary operations it has at Baldovie Industrial Estate.

It is understood around 30 are to go from the Wood Group Heavy Industrial Turbines (WGHIT) unit, which is involved in the servicing and repair of turbines used in the offshore oil and gas industry, and the remainder from the nearby Wood Group Accessories and Components (WGAC) plant, which carries out the repair and overhaul of aero engines.

Last night a spokeswoman for Wood Group issued a statement saying that “due to the changing nature of our business” WGHIT and WGAC proposed to make a number of redundancies.

“This may lead to a maximum of 70 job losses,” the statement continued. “We are now in a consultation process with the workforce.

“Management of both companies are working closely with employees to minimise job losses and every effort will be made to redeploy employees within the group.”

It is the third jobs blow to be delivered by Wood Group at the Dundee operations inside 18 months and has inevitably heightened concerns about the long-term future of the two units.

Last March, the group announced the loss of over 50 workers from the two divisions—21 from WGHIT and and 33 at WGAC.

The move was said to be due to a reduction in workload and a need to cut costs.

The previous September the group confirmed the loss of 25 jobs from the WGHIT plant.

Wood Group has been a major engineering employer in the city for a number of years. As recently as two years ago the group employed almost 400 in Dundee—about 220 at WGHIT and about 170 at WGAC. The total within the two operations is now approximately 300.

The latest cuts have contributed to a bad spell for engineering and manufacturing in Dundee.

At the end of January the Simclar (Dundee) Ltd sheet metal fabrication plant at the Dryburgh industrial estate closed with the loss of 50 jobs.