Layoffs NEWS

Oil companies in Nigeria have tightened their security amidst several protests in the region. The oil companies' decision to slack off more employees might have aggravated problems of pipeline tapping, illegal oil refining, and pirate attacks in the region. Polices' brutality also triggered the riots and looting in the last month. The rising unemployment rate and recent layoffs are expected to continue this tension for a longer period.

British energy giant bp on Monday announced plans to axe "close to 10,000" jobs, or almost 15 percent of its global workforce, after the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for oil. "We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP -- most by the end of this year,", Chief Executive, Bernard Looney said in an email to its 70,000 staff seen by media.

San Ramon oil and gas giant Chevron Corp. will lay off up to 15% of its 45,000-person global workforce amid the economic havoc wrought on the energy sector by the coronavirus. The oil producer previously disclosed a 30% reduction in its 2020 spending and some voluntary job cuts amid this year's sharp drop in oil prices and lower demand for oil.

OVO Energy, which bought the household supply business of SSE for £500m just months ago, has announced plans to slash 2,600 jobs. The company said its integration plans, including a drive for digital and investment in a zero-carbon future, had been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. OVO said it had initially expected the mergers to have taken a number of years but it hoped to achieve the cuts through volunteers.

As the world economy struggles against the coronavirus pandemic, US-based Chesapeake Energy has cut off 200 jobs in Oklahoma. The state, on Wednesday, informed about the job losses. While half of the job cuts were at Chesapeake’s Oklahoma City headquarters, the other half was lost in the oilfield, according to the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development. Chesapeake has not responded to a request for comment.

The coronavirus pandemic has been estimated to cost over 100,000 U.S. jobs in March across the clean energy industry. The estimates come as an analysis of Department of Labor unemployment claims were released yesterday by BW Research for clean energy business groups E2, the American Council on Renewable Energy and E4TheFuture. The job losses have been attributed to the stringent measures to control the new coronavirus worldwide.

Oilfield services major, Halliburton yesterday informed about cutting about 350 jobs in Oklahoma and that its executives would reduce their salaries amid a deepening oil price rout. Spokeswoman Emily Mir said, “This was a difficult decision, but is necessary action as we face challenging market conditions,”. In a filing to the state, Halliburton said that permanent job cuts could begin this week at its Duncan, Oklahoma, facility.

As energy firms around the world cut costs amidst the oil price crash, oil supermajor BP plc has decided to not cut jobs over the next three months. A Linkedin post from Chief Executive Officer, Bernard Looney read that the company’s response to the crisis “will not include making any BP staff redundant over the next 3 months.” BP employs over 73,000 staff across several countries.

With coronavirus outbreak worsening every passing day, UK trade body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) has now released figures indicating a 40% drop in the staff across North Sea offshore installations since the start of the outbreak. While over 11,500 normally operate on North Sea installations, the number has dropped to 7,000 workers. OGUK had said in a briefing last week that companies were negating coronavirus risks by bringing staff down.

Market researcher, Rystad Energy has forecasted over one million jobs in the oilfield service industry to be lost in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. The looming layoff wave is being attributed to low project volumes because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The oilfield services industry employs over five million people globally. Analysts at Rystad Energy predict that the contractors will drop at least 21% of their workforce.

Apache Corp has informed about closing its San Antonio, Texas office through which the firm oversees its Alpine High venture in the Permian basin. The move will cost approximately 272 employees their jobs. The layoffs follow a warning from Apache to move capital away from the struggling Alpine High region. A filing made by Apache with the Texas Workforce Commission informed that affected employees will leave the company on March 6.

Occidental Petroleum on Wednesday informed about ‘significantly’ reducing its workforce, after buying out its rival Anadarko Petroleum last year. Layoffs are currently underway across the company, after staff was cut through a voluntary program, spokeswoman Melissa Schoeb said. She added, “Occidental’s integration team identified the jobs we need to successfully and safely operate our business and achieve our synergy goals,”.

Halliburton is cutting jobs at its Bakersfield plant in California, as the US firm scuffles with sinking profits amid a global slowdown in oil and gas activity. In a filing with California authorities, Halliburton said that the layoff plan will have an immediate impact on 70 employees. The company recently laid off 800 employees in Oklahoma, apart from 650 employees across Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and North Dakota.

As Canada’s energy sector struggles with sluggish growth, the layoff trend continues with the latest layoffs coming from Husky Energy. The firm laid off a number of employees yesterday, spokeswoman for Husky said. The sackings come a day right after the federal election in Canada, where Prime Minister Trudeau failed to secure an outright majority of seats. Concerns of further delay in the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion are now worrying the industry.

Halliburton yesterday informed that it will let go of 650 jobs across the United States amidst slowing oil and gas activities. Spokeswoman for Halliburton, Emily Mir said, “Making this decision was not easy, nor taken lightly, but unfortunately it was necessary as we work to align our operations to reduced customer activity,”. Cowen and Co have projected a fall of 11% in the expenditure by U.S. independent producers this year.

UK-based EnQuest yesterday informed that it will shed around 80 of its employees deployed at the Sullom Voe Terminal by the end of 2019. EnQuest regarded the move as “essential” to maintain the competitiveness of the oil terminal and empower it to retain and win new business. The employees expected to be dropped consists of around 60 full-time staff members and 20 contractors.

Joining a number of energy firms, Spanish energy company Repsol SA, yesterday, announced plans of laying off about 30% of its Canadian workforce as part of global restructuring. Repsol will intimate employees affected by the reorganization in the Canadian exploration and production and corporate units this week. While the firm refused to give an exact number of cuts, Repsol’s Canadian workforce stood at approximately 700 in 2018.

“Challenging market conditions” and “price pressure” has drove Aker Solutions to consider laying off as many as 150 employees at the Agotnes yard, Norway. The company has already informed its employees of the looming threat to their position. Aker, last year, said it would let go of considerable number of employees across all its operations. Around 650 staff Aker Solutions was dropped in India, the UK and Norway.