Oilfield giant to cut up to 8,000 jobs, mostly in the U.S.
Feb 5, 2015, 8:54am CST
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Bernard Duroc-Danner/ Bloomberg Enlarge Photo
Chris Ratcliffe/ Bloomberg
Bernard Duroc-Danner, CEO of Weatherford International Ltd., is working on cutting out unprofitable assets from the company.
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Financially struggling Weatherford International PLC (NYSE: WFT) will cut up to 8,000 jobs in the first half of 2015, most of which will come in the U.S.
Weatherford, which eliminated nearly 7,000 jobs globally just last year, is using the oil downturn to refocus away from North America and toward the Eastern Hemisphere for its oilfield services business.
The services giant is Houston-operated, although formally domiciled in Ireland, so the Houston region can continue to expect more Weatherford job losses.
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"It's partly correcting, if you will, sins of the past and partly the (oil) downturn," said Weatherford Chairman, President and CEO Bernard Duroc-Danner in a conference call .
Weatherford is quickly cutting 5,000 jobs in the first quarter and up to another 3,000 in a second phase through both voluntary and involuntary processes, Duroc-Danner said.
The company also is slicing its 2015 capital expenditures by 38 percent from $1.45 billion to $900 million.