Oil service firm Schlumberger has dealt the north-east another jobs blow, warning that nearly 60 positions are at risk in Aberdeen.
Yesterday’s revelation by the Houston-based firm came just days after oil giant Shell said “substantial” staff cuts were likely among its global workforce.
Other companies have already axed posts or hinted at redundancies in the north-east as the combined impact of the global recession, weaker energy demand and a plunge in oil prices from last year’s record high takes its toll on the wider sector.
Schlumberger said 58 jobs were under threat at its Dyce-based drilling and measurements division.
A spokeswoman for the firm added: “This is a result of the reduced level of activity within the oil field services sector as customers reduce their exploration and production expenditure.”
She said a consultation started on Thursday and any redundancies would take effect from the beginning of September.
Schlumberger employs 1,700 people in the Aberdeen area and around 3,500 in the UK out of an 82,000-strong workforce worldwide.
A total of 240 work at the drilling and measurements operation at Dyce.
Schlumberger has announced two rounds of job cuts this year in response to the global downturn. Each has involved about 5,000 positions and together they represent about 10% of the firm’s entire workforce.
The job cuts are expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter in the absence of any further deterioration in conditions.
Shell chief executive Peter Voser’s comments on Wednesday have raised fears among the 2,000-plus employees of the firm working from Aberdeen that they will be targeted.
In February, Baker Hughes said north-east employees were being made redundant as part of previously announced plans to cut the firm’s total workforce by 1,500, or 4%, in response to weakness in the oil and gas market, in particular in North America.
A source told the Press and Journal at the time that 85 jobs were being axed in the company’s drilling fluids operation in Aberdeen but Baker Hughes insisted the number of positions under threat was not that high.
Aberdeen-based survey firm Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping has cut nearly 50 jobs this year, many of them locally.
In January, energy service company Halliburton said it would have to cut jobs in areas experiencing a significant decline in activity but declined to comment on what this meant for the north-east.
The same month, sources close to Odfjell Drilling UK in Aberdeen said staff had been informed that 110 out of 175 offshore personnel would lose their jobs and a further 20-30 onshore staff would go.