Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Thursday that it would eliminate at least 250 jobs in its U.K North Sea operations this year, the latest workforce cut for big energy companies trying to reduce spending as crude trades for about half its 2014 peak. The job cuts come on top of the 250 positions Shell eliminated last summer from its U.K. operations and represent another blow to a North Sea oil industry that has seen its often high-cost projects upended by an oil-price collapse. Shell, which has about 94,000 employees world-wide, had been trying to cut costs even before the oil price began falling, after being criticized by investors for years of heavy spending on big projects. The company said the cuts “are part of a range of initiatives Shell has been pursuing to […]