ConocoPhillips Announces More Layoffs

ConocoPhillips has announced another round of layoffs, this time for 6 percent of its employees worldwide.

The company employs 15,600 people worldwide, according to its website.  Of that number, 1,400 employees work in Bartlesville.

News On 6 asked specifically how many would be impacted in Bartlesville, and a spokesman tells us they're still sorting that out.

“As far as what the impact will be to Bartlesville, since we’re still early in the process, that has yet to be determined. However, we will know more in the next several weeks as we work through our formal process,” said David Austin.

The company says the layoffs are part of a cost-reduction effort due to a downturn in the economy. 

"ConocoPhillips has undertaken a series of cost-reduction measures over the last 18 months in response to the downturn.  We have taken several steps as a company to adapt to lower and more volatile prices and strengthen our position coming out of the downturn. Over the past couple years, we’ve significantly reduced our capital activities and finished some major projects, which left us with more organizational capacity than we need," said David Austin.

"We have been transparent with employees that we will have targeted workforce reductions in certain areas of our business to align our organizational capacity with future activity levels.  We expect approximately 6 percent of our global workforce to be impacted, with the largest impact occurring in North America."

Last year, ConocoPhillips laid off 10-percent of its workforce worldwide.  In Bartlesville, that was about 170 employees.

10/6/2015 Related Story: ConocoPhillips Lays Off Dozens Of Bartlesville Employees

In addition to ConocoPhillips, oil-field services company Schlumberger announced earlier this year it was cutting about 16,000 jobs worldwide.  Schlumberger also has a presence in Bartlesville.

Last year, Schlumberger closed its plant in Broken Arrow.

4/29/2015 Related Story: Schlumberger To Close Broken Arrow Facility