Contractors working within the North Sea offshore oil industry have moved to veto plans aimed at increasing the amount of funding they contribute for the training of workers.

Coming soon after it was rued that offshore workers have to be covered by Working Time Regulations, giving them the same legal minimum holiday pay as on-shore contractors, engineering firms have argued that they cannot afford to bear any further costs for the foreseeable future.

As such, the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board looks set to veto the proposals put forward by its own chairman, Terry Lazenby, for the current levy imposed on companies for funding training initiatives to be doubled, Contract Journal has learned.

Mr Lazenby had argued that this would be an effective means of coping with an estimated shortfall of skilled engineers in the offshore sector of 17,000 by 2014.

However, the board looks likely to call for a freeze on levy rates, which currently stand at 1.5 per cent of the payroll onsite and 0.18 per cent of the payroll off-site.

The comments come as Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum has announced that it has traded its stake in one North Sea oil block for an interest in two new licences in the Moray Firth, off the coast of north-east Scotland.

Oil & Gas Directory: Training & Development