British Petroleum(BP) announced today it would be laying off another 4,000 employees globally, with 270 of those positions being eliminated in Alaska.
The Alaska reductions are scheduled to take place throughout 2016 and will amount to approximately a 13 percent decrease in the state’s BP workforce.
The oil giant cited continued low oil prices as the reason for cutbacks.
Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was traded at $30.50 a barrel on Tuesday afternoon, while the American benchmark, West Texas intermediate, dropped below $30 for the first time since 2003.
Oil companies have been unloading job positions since last year when oil prices fell about one-third of the way from their price in 2014. Prices have dropped an additional 15 percent in the first 12 days of 2016.
ConocoPhillips cut 10 percent of its workforce globally in 2015, with over 140 jobs eliminated in Alaska. In the first nine months of 2015, Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes slashed employee headcounts by 46,000, or 18 percent.