The Anglo-Norwegian company said that some of the losses would fall in the UK, where the division employs 6,000 workers.

The job losses will be among oil and gas workers.

Details of exactly where the cuts will fall have not yet been worked out, the company said.

BBC Scotland's Gillian Marles reports on the job cuts

Kvaerner has been facing financial woes, and in April announced it was pulling out of shipbuilding - which had become increasingly competitive. It also said it was selling off operations in Norway, Britain, Germany and Finland because of spiralling losses.

The company said a third of the workforce would be dropped to cut costs.

It said it would concentrate on three core areas, one of which is oil and gas.

This year the company went into the red for the first time since 1967 and its share price collapsed.

Shipyard sale

The future of its shipyard in Govan, Scotland, hung in the balance, as the operation had chalked up losses for 10 years.

Kvaerner announced an end to its shipbuilding operations

The shipyard was eventually bought by GEC Marconi and in the end, 97 of the 1,200-strong workforce were given redundancy notices.

The company has a further 11 shipyards to sell before it makes a total exit from the shipbuilding industry.

A spokesman said the latest job cuts were also related to the fall in oil and gas prices over the past year.

Kvaerner chiefs have also indicated they want to halve the group's capacity for rig-building and concentrate more on the hi-tech side of the division, which makes seabed measuring equipment, communications systems and other products.

The group has two British rig-building operations in Methil, Fife, and Port Clarence on Teesside.

One of the two is expected to be closed, along with one of two plants in Norway.

Fife orders

GMB union convener at Kvaerner's plant in Fife, Jim Kyles, said the factory was recruiting workers and nothing had been said about job losses.

"We have three orders on the go. So we are not looking to be closing."

But Mr Kyles did sound an ominous note for the Teesside operation.

"I know that Port Clarence runs out of work at the end of next month," he said.

The oil and gas division also has design and engineering operations in London, Croydon and Aberdeen.