The U.K. oil and gas industry will ax 120,000 jobs by the end of the year following the collapse in oil prices, according to a lobby group. This year, 330,000 jobs will be supported by oil and gas production, down from a peak of 450,000 in 2014, according to the report from Oil & Gas U.K. The numbers include non-oil producing jobs in the wider economy, including hotel staff and taxi drivers. The estimates demonstrate how much oil companies have tightened their belts in order to weather the collapse in crude prices and the effect of the downturn on the wider economy. Brent, the global benchmark, has tumbled from as high as $115 a barrel two years ago to about $52 a barrel. “The industry has been spending more than it is earning since the oil-price slump towards the end of 2014,” Deirdre Michie, chief executive officer of Oil […]