Job Cuts Continue in Response to Low Oil Prices

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First, from Reuters:
Weatherford International Plc (WFT.N) plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or about 9 percent of its workforce, by the end of the first quarter as the oil services company tries to save costs amid sinking oil prices and budget cuts. 
The job cuts will focus on both operating and support positions and a majority of the reductions will be in the Western Hemisphere, the company said in a statement. 
Weatherford, which currently employs about 56,000 people across the world, expects the job cuts to result in annualized savings of over $350 million.

"Due to the quickly changing market conditions, we are aligning and reducing our cost as well as organizational structures to match the new environment," the company said.
And from Business Journal Daily:
Vallourec Star announced this morning that it plans to shut down its pipe and tube operations here for a three-week period effective in mid-February. 
The company, which manufactures oil country tubular goods, or OCTG, pipe for the oil and gas industry, took the measure because of the declining oil and gas market. 
"In response to the declining oil and gas market, Vallourec Star continues to adapt our operating plans to business demands," the company said in a statement. "The economic realities we are facing require additional action." 
Vallourec said that conditions have reached a point where "some employees will be affected. This is unfortunate but cannot be avoided." 
The company, which in 2012 opened a $1 billion pipe mill in Youngstown, said it would also offer a six-month voluntary layoff period for interested employees. "This is strictly voluntary, health-care coverage will continue through the six-month period," Vallourec said.
From Fuel Fix:
Oil field services company Halliburton Co. said Tuesday it’s planning to ax 5,000 to 6,500 jobs to cope with the crude-price collapse, the latest in a string of oil-field layoff announcements. 
The cuts amount to 6.5 percent to 8 percent of its global workforce of 80,000 employees. Halliburton’s move brings the number of layoffs announced by the world’s four biggest oil field services in recent weeks to more than 30,000 workers around the world. That’s about 9.4 percent of their combined workforce. 
“We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through the challenging market environment,” Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said in an emailed statement.
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