Oil giant BP is accelerating plans to cut hundreds of jobs within its back-office departments – many of them based in the UK and US.

“Oil is concentrating minds on making the organisation more efficient and the right size for the smaller portfolio we have now,” BP said.

Crude prices have fallen by almost 40% this year, reducing oil firms’ margins.

Brian Gilvary, BP’s chief financial officer, told the Sunday Times: “We have got flexibility in our programme to trim into next year if that’s what we need in a new world of oil at $70 or $60, or whatever the number is.”

The company, which has been downsizing since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, said it had long planned the cuts, but is speeding up the process due to falling oil prices.