ConocoPhillips to cut 1,800 jobs

Oil giant ConocoPhillips Co. said it will cut 10 percent of its workforce in an attempt to cope with the ongoing low oil prices.

The company notified staff of the 1,800 layoffs this week and will start sending notices to affected workers next month, the Houston Chronicle reported.

{mosads}North America will see the largest job reductions, with 500 employees being cut from ConocoPhillips’s Houston headquarters. Canada will see 400 jobs cut, the Chronicle said.

“We’ll know more in the next several weeks as we work through our formal process,” Director of Communications Daren Beaudo told the Chronicle.

“Our industry is undergoing a dramatic downturn, which has caused us to look at our future workforce needs,” he said. “As we have assessed the implications of lower prices on our business, we’ve made the difficult decision that workforce reductions will be necessary.”

Tuesday’s announcement is only the latest sign of pain in the international oil industry as prices hover around $40 a barrel, a level not seen since the latter part of the last decade, from more than $100 a barrel last year.

The slump has already caused 176,000 workers to be laid off in the oil sector globally, the Chronicle reported, citing figures from Swift Worldwide Resources.

Job losses are one of the top arguments the oil industry is citing in its efforts to have Congress overturn the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil.