Southwestern Energy to cut 1100 jobs amid oil slump

In August, Southwestern announced it was laying off 102 employees, 80 of them in Arkansas.

The Houston, Texas-based company said it offered affected employees a severance package, and it offered some affected employees reduced roles within the company.

The oil and natural gas company said in a government filing Thursday that it had no drilling rigs in operation to start the year and expects drilling activity to decline.

Hutchinson said he was pleased that more than 550 Arkansans would remain employed by Southwestern and hopeful that the company will begin bringing employees back to work after natural gas prices begin to stabilize and increase. Together, the reductions are expected to decrease the current costs of the company by approximately $150 to $175 million on an annual basis, exclusive of one-time termination benefits.

The company plans to take a pre-tax charge of between $60 million to $70 million in the first quarter tied to the reductions.

Devon, an independent exploration and production firm, produced about 214,400 barrels of crude per day in 2014 along with about 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day and about 120,000 barrels of natural gas liquids per day.

In the past 12 months, Southwestern Energy’s share price has fallen by two-thirds and traded up almost 15% in the early afternoon Thursday, at $8.42 in a 52-week range of $5.00 to $29.61.