North Sea oil and gas industry faces 'challenge' says Osborne

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has said he will look at new measures to support the North Sea oil and gas industry in the next Budget.

His remarks follow an announcement by BP that it is going to cut 200 staff jobs and 100 contractor roles after a review of its North Sea oil operations.

The firm has been scaling back its business following the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.

The process has been accelerated by the falling price of oil.

Mr Osborne said that the price drop had mostly been good news for the country.