Halliburton Among Companies Cutting 1,000 Jobs In Oklahoma, Texas

Halliburton Co. HAL announced it is cutting 808 jobs with the closure of an office in El Reno, Oklahoma, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Houston-based Halliburton informed the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development of the decision to terminate the jobs in El Reno on Dec. 2.

"The layoff is expected to be a permanent employment loss," Michael Queener, Halliburton vice president of midcontinent operations, wrote in a letter to the workforce development office.

Halliburton is relocating the majority of its operations in El Reno about 75 miles south to Duncan, Oklahoma, this month.

Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. The company's layoffs come after several weeks of declining oilfield and rig activity in the Permian Basin, according to FreightWaves' John Kingston.

Since the beginning of 2019, Halliburton has eliminated more than 1,400 jobs in Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and North Dakota.

Halliburton's stock (STOCK.HAL) declined 2.44% the day after it announced it was cutting 808 jobs in El Reno, Oklahoma. Chart FreightWaves SONAR

Another 112 workers at Pumpco Energy Services in Odessa, Texas, and 85 workers from National Oilwell Varco in Houston were also laid off Nov. 25, according to a bulletin released Dec. 2 from the Texas Workforce Commission.

"Drilling activity … continued to erode, with firms cutting spending and orders for new equipment," said a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "Well completion activity has proved more resilient, particularly in the Permian Basin, slipping only slightly from recent highs. The oilfield services market remained depressed, with little optimism about better margins next year."

Natural gas producer Range Resources Corp. also announced it was closing its Houston office on Nov. 13, eliminating 50 jobs permanently.

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