BAAR, Switzerland, Oct. 22 (UPI) — More layoffs are expected and weakness in the oil markets should continue into 2017, the top executive at oil services company Weatherford International said.
Weatherford reported revenue for the third quarter at $2.24 billion, down 6.3 percent from the previous quarter and 42 percent lower year-on-year.
Low crude oil prices, down about 50 percent from this time last year, has robbed energy companies of the capital needed to invest in the type of services companies like Weatherford provide. Baker Hughes this week reported similarly weak financial results.
Weatherford said it trimmed its capital spending plans for full-year 2015 by $100 million to $650 million, more than 50 percent lower than last year. Already, the company said it planned to cut staff by about 11,000, but would now increase that to 14,000 and close five of its seven manufacturing and service facilities.
Bernard Duroc-Danner, the top executive at Weatherford, said the Middle East and Russian markets could show signs of life, the Asian market may have bottomed out, but weakness was expected to endure in Africa, Latin America and the United States.
“Over the medium term, we expect commodity prices to recover as the global oil supply and demand forces re-balance, sparking some early activity improvements in the second half of 2016,” he said in a statement. “Pricing will continue to remain weak until 2017.”
By the end of the year, Weatherford said it will have cut $2 billion in costs, of which $600 million is a result of permanent structural changes. Duroc-Danner said his company was positioned to exit the downturn as a “leaner, de-layered, more efficient and streamlined organization.”
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