More U.S. oil service firms cut jobs on oil decline

Three more U.S. oilfield services companies, all based in the country's oil hub of Houston, on Thursday joined a list of energy firms in cutting jobs and capital spending due to plummeting crude prices.

Parker Drilling, which had roughly 3,400 employees at the end of 2013, said in a quarterly conference call Thursday that it has cut its field workforce from its peak by about 70 percent.

Meanwhile, Key Energy Services, a well servicing contractor with 8,400 employees at the end of 2013, said Thursday that the firm has cut 25 percent of its functional support staff and has been consolidating and closing service facilities.

At Oil States International, another Houston-based oilfield services firm which had more than 9,000 employees, said it has cut an undisclosed chunk of its well services workforce.

Their decisions to downsize workforce came amid a string of budget cuts and job reductions by oil producers and services companies in the United States, big or small, as they adjust to oil prices that have fallen in half from their peaks last summer.

Earlier, Halliburton Co., one of the world's largest oil-field services companies, said it would cut 5,000 to 6,500 jobs to cope with falling crude prices. Endi