Oilfield services group Weatherford is to axe 7,000 jobs around the world after weather conditions in the North Sea – and Middle East disruption – left it facing lower than expected profits.
The company, which has 70,000 employees and a significant presence in Aberdeen to support UK projects, said disruption in Latin America had also made a significant impact in its results, which are due to be announced next month.
The cuts, which represent around 10% of the firm’s workforce, will come from the main company rather than the non-core operations already being sold off this year, the firm said.
“The workforce reduction is expected to be completed during the first half of 2014, resulting in annual savings of $500million (£303million), with roughly half of this amount impacting 2014 earnings,” the company said.
Weatherford said it was also launching a review of its unprofitable operations with a view to selling them off.
The job cuts are expected to be completed in the first half of 2014, it said.
The company was recently fined £153million by US regulators to settle long-running federal charges that included flouting sanctions against Iran and Syria, and sending business partners on World Cup football junkets.
Weatherford, based in Switzerland, is the smallest of the four large oilfield services firms – Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.
It gets about 45% of revenue from North America and 18%from the Middle East and north Africa.
The company said on Thursday that its net debt had been reduced by nearly £425million during the fourth quarter.
It paid back some debt with the cash portion of the proceeds it received from the sale of its stake in Russian submersible pump producer Borets International.
The company now has about £8.7billion in total liabilities, including short-term borrowings and long-term debt, as of September 30.