Halliburton to cut another 5000 jobs amid oil slump

Halliburton Co., in survival mode as oilfields are shunned worldwide, is sending another 5,000 people home, slashing its workforce by another 8%, the company confirmed on Thursday.

Its stock price has lost more than half its value since mid-2014 when crude prices peaked.

It’s the latest evidence of the crisis confronting the USA oil industry as crude prices have crashed to seven-year lows.

Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said the Houston-based company was reducing its workforce “due to ongoing market conditions”.

Halliburton grew from 58,000 employees in 2010 to more than 80,000 during 2014.

Details about specific businesses and the number of employees by location “is competitive information and therefore unavailable”, she said.

The dramatic reduction in drilling activity in the USA has cost oil services companies lots of business. Halliburton consolidated facilities in more than 20 countries and closed operations in two, he said.

Lesar said that “2016 is shaping up to be one tough slog through the mud”.

Many smaller oil services companies are now experiencing financial stress.

Earlier this week, European Union regulators made a decision to delay the process for their review of Halliburton’s proposed merger with Baker Hughes.

Shares of Halliburton, down 18 per cent in the past three months, declined 0.9 per cent to $US32.17 in Thursday trading. Over the next year business opportunities will be “much worse than anticipated” they wrote.