ABERDEEN, Scotland, Aug. 18 (UPI) — Scottish oil services company Wood Group said it cut staff by more than 10 percent since December in expectation of a durable energy sector contraction.
“Conditions in oil and gas markets remain very challenging,” Chief Executive Officer Bob Keiller said in a statement.
Wood Group reported a 7.4 percent decline to $226 million in core profits during the first half of the year and a sharp decline from its production services, which it said was a reflection of lower activity in the North Sea and in U.S. shale basins.
The company last year completed its acquisition of Wyoming-based services company Elkhorn, which operated in the Niobrara, Permian, Marcellus and Utica shale basins in the United States for $215 million, singling out the U.S. shale sector as among its strengths.
With crude oil prices halved since last year, the Scottish company said it had trimmed the number of staff deployed across its portfolio.
“Group headcount is down 13 percent from the position in December and 17 percent from June 2014,” Keiller said.
The company last year said it had about 4,500 people employed in its various activities “across the most significant U.S. shale plays.”
Despite the downturn, the company said its outlook for the rest of the year was conservative, but unchanged.
“With little prospect of short term improvement in market conditions, we will focus on remaining competitive and protecting our capability, working with clients to reduce their overall costs, increase efficiency and safely improve performance,” the CEO said.
On the same day, the company said it was awarded a “multimillion dollar” contract from Shell to work in the oil fields of West African country of Gabon. Wood Group said that, “effective immediately,” the contract, its first in Gabon, will provide 200 jobs to Gabonese nationals.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.