BP (BP.L) will cut hundreds of jobs in the North Sea to reduce costs in one of the world's most expensive exploration areas as oil prices fall.

The BBC quoted sources as saying staff cuts would be announced later on Thursday in the Scottish city of Aberdeen.

An industry source confirmed the report, saying cuts would amount to hundreds of jobs.

The headcount reduction comes as part of a previously announced $1 billion restructuring at BP aimed at simplifying the company's structure after it sold billions of dollars of assets.

Oil prices have collapsed over the last six months, dropping almost 60 percent as a global glut has overwhelmed demand at a time of lacklustre world economic growth.

North Sea Brent crude oil LCOc1 was trading around $47.50 a barrel on Thursday, down from more than $115 last June.

Fellow North Sea oil producer ConocoPhillips (COP.N) is also cutting 230 jobs in Britain, with its UK workforce expected to drop to just over 1,400 by March, a spokeswoman said.

Rival oil majors Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Chevron (CVX.N) announced job cuts in the North Sea last year.

On Thursday, Africa-focused oil producer Tullow Oil (TLW.L) said it had written off $2.3 billion in relation to exploration work and some of its assets including in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.

BP employs 4,000 in the North Sea and another 11,000 across the UK.

Britain's North Sea oil and gas sector employs over 400,000 people and has brought more than $200 billion in tax revenues to the government, making it a vital part of Britain'seconomy.

News of job cuts in the sector have stirred concern among the country's politicians gearing up for parliamentary elections in May.

"The government is determined to do everything we can to work with industry to make sure we can maintain those jobs," British Energy Secretary Edward Davey, due to visit industry representatives in Aberdeen on Thursday, told BBC radio.

Fergus Ewing, Scottish minister for business, energy and tourism, said the Scottish government had set up a task force to see that could be done.

"In order to prevent the premature decommissioning of fields there needs to be a clear signal sent to the operators, many of whom are headquartered in places like Houston and Calgary, that the UK government gets it," Ewing, a member of the Scottish National Party, told BBC radio.

"The UK needs to send a signal that it values the industry as an enormous contributor to Scotland and the UK, not as a giant cash machine for the exchequer when the times are good."