Halliburton axes 6400 jobs

Halliburton has announced plans to lay off up to 6400 workers due to a dramatic fall in oil prices. 
Low oil prices have forced major oil companies to reduce capital expenditure, consequently hurting the oilfield services sector, including companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes.

“We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment,” BBC has quoted Halliburton as saying.

Halliburton has a workforce of more that 80,000 employees, representing 140 nationalities in over 80 countries.

The company has said that the overall number of 6400 jobs includes the previously announced plan to reduce its international workforce by a 1000.

Halliburton, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is not the only oilfield services major forced to lay off workers due to the challenging market conditions. Schlumberger, world’s largest provider of services to the oil and gas sector, last month said it would lay off 9000 workers.

Also, Baker Hughes, soon to be taken over by Halliburton, in January said it expected to undertake a workforce reduction of 7000, most of which to take place in the first quarter of the year.

Halliburton, world’s second biggest oilfield services provider, said that the latest layoffs are not related to the takeover agreement with Baker Hughes.

Offshore Energy Today Staff