Energy service giant Weatherford International said yesterday it had ramped up job cuts to 10,000 in response to lower oil prices.
The number is 2,000 more than it had previously announced for this year and the new total will leave it with about 39,000 people in its core global operations, plus 6,000 on rigs.
Weatherford, which has its global headquarters in Switzerland, with Europe and Caspian business run from offices in Aberdeen, said most of the extra 2,000 jobs being axed were in North America.
It added: “Due to the rapidly changing market conditions, we will continue aligning and reducing our cost as well as organisational structures to match the new environment.
“We have now increased our 2015 reduction in force exercise to target 10,000 positions, in place of the previously announced 8,000.
“By the end of the first quarter of 2015, 6,449 terminations had been completed resulting in expected annualised savings of over $422million (£281million).”
Weatherford has refused to comment on the precise impact of its job cull on Aberdeen, but its operations in the Granite City seem to have escaped relatively unscathed as more than 85% of the previously announced “terminations” were in North America.
Reporting first quarter pre-tax losses of £71million yesterday, Weatherford said: “We expect to complete the entire revised program of 10,000 terminations by the end of the second quarter, generating expected annualised savings of $640million (£425million).
“We had also planned to shut down seven of our manufacturing facilities during the year. Of these, two were closed in the first quarter, with four more planned for the second quarter and the seventh being targeted for closure in the third quarter.
“Separately, we plan to shut down and consolidate 60 operating facilities across North America by the end of the year.”
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