Oil and gas companies continue announcing global job cuts in the wake of oil and gas prices continually dropping.
Royal Dutch Shell announced on July 30 a plan to “manage returns in prolonged oil price downturn that include a 10% workforce reduction and a 20% reduction in 2015 capital investments. That impacts roughly 6,500 jobs and cuts approximately $7 billion from capital investments.
Just two days before Shell’s announcement, oil and gas supermajor Chevron Corp.- of Houston, Texas, announced global job cuts totalling 1,500, which they hope to finalize by mid-November.
Those cuts were described by the company as part of streamlining operations aimed at reducing costs by $1 billion.
In more local effects, ConocoPhillips Alaska also announced on July 28 it was in the initial stages of marketing its North Cook Inlet Unit and interest in Beluga River Unit.
Amy Burnett with COPA said the Cook Inlet assets are no longer the most profitable in the company’s portfolio…
Burnett: “It’s historically significant, but the Cook Inlet and Beluga River units are mature fields and they’re no longer considered core to our Alaska operations. Our focus is really on the current North Slope operations, including the Alaska LNG Project.”
Job cuts were not announced with that disclosure.
Oil prices have declined roughly 50% during the last year.
Royal Dutch Shell’s oil and gas exploration and production earnings in the second quarter totalled $1 billion compared to $4.7 billion the previous year’s second quarter.
Shell’s revenue from a barrel of oil was 48% lower during 2015’s second quarter than a year earlier; natural gas earnings also fell 31%.
During the announcement on July 30, Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden justified the company’s plan for exploratory drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea this summer, saying the oil field has the potential to be larger than any of the U.S.’s in the Gulf of Mexico.