Oil services company Schlumberger Thursday said it was firing 9,000 workers due to plunging oil prices that have forced petroleum companies to cut drilling budgets.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”6paCaAm8eu7qnnkYivTVyJjZibTXqjB6″]Schlumberger disclosed the job cuts as it reported sharply lower fourth-quarter earnings in the wake of a more than 50 percent fall in oil prices since June. The job cuts account for about 7.5 percent of Schlumberger’s global workforce.<\/p>\n
Schlumberger’s fourth-quarter earnings came in at $302 million, down 82 percent from the year-ago level. Revenues rose 6.2 percent to $12.6 billion.<\/p>\n
The big drop was due to $1.8 billion in a series of one-time charges related to the steep fall in commodity prices.<\/p>\n
These were: a $296 million charge for the 9,000 job cuts; a $590 million write-down of seismic assets due to a restructuring compelled by lower prices; a $472 million devaluation charge in Venezuela; and a $199 million write-down of oilfield assets in Texas whose value has fallen due to lower oil prices.<\/p>\n
“In this uncertain environment, we continue to focus on what we can control,” said chief executive Paal Kibsgaard.<\/p>\n
“We have already taken a number of actions to restructure and resize our organization that has led us to record a number of charges in the fourth quarter.”<\/p>\n
It is unclear yet whether the latest decision will affect their workers in Ghana.<\/p>\n