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U.S. energy giant Halliburton annouces job cuts in Houston

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. oil and gas services company Halliburton on Tuesday announced job cuts in Houston, Taxas as part of its bid to confront the weakening market conditions.

The multinational company's move came after it announced last month that it would cut 1,000 jobs across the company. But the company did not say exactly how many employees it had laid off this time.

In a statement to local media, Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said that the company had made some workforce reductions in Houston. While these reductions were difficult, the company believed they were necessary to work through this challenging market.

"We will continue to monitor closely the business environment and will make adjustments to the cost structure of their business as needed," she said.

In November last year, the Houston-based company announced that it would buy its rival Baker Hughes for 34.6 billion U.S. dollars in a cash and stock transaction, marking one of the biggest mergers in the oilfield services ever.

Halliburton and Baker Hughes, the second and third biggest oilfield service companies in the world behind Slumberger, have 136,000 employees around the world. They said the combination would result in 2 billion dollars in cost savings and revenue increases.

In addition, OFS Energy Fund, a Houston-based investment firm,also announced on Monday layoffs of 150 employees from the oilfield companies it owned in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and elsewhere.

World oil prices have fallen nearly 50 percent from last year, hovering at 45 U.S. dollars a barrel, and that is nearly a six-year low. As a result, some energy giants like ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources Inc. have sharply reduced their annual spending budgets. Enditem