Schlumberger, WWE Announce Job Cuts

Schlumberger (SLB Quote) announced a 5% reduction of its North American work force along with job cuts internationally, a spokesman for the world's biggest oilfield services company said.

The move comes as other major oil field services companies, including Halliburton (HAL Quote), are also weighing cuts after crude and natural gas prices dropped, leading oil companies to decrease spending on exploration and production in 2009.

Schlumberger's cuts, which began this week, will eliminate up to 1,000 of the company's 19,000 North American employees, including up to 100 of its 5,000 jobs in the Houston area, spokesman Stephen Harris said. Among the jobs being cut are administrative support positions, field operations personnel and contract workers, he said. Details about cuts elsewhere were not yet available, he said.

Oil field services companies staffed up in recent years as the price of crude rose toward record levels, approaching $150 a barrel just last summer. However, the industry is being hit with a recent drastic drop in business and the ongoing global economic crisis.

The second- and third-largest firms, Halliburton and Houston-based Baker Hughes (BHI Quote) have not announced specific cuts.

Last month, Bernard Duroc-Danner, chief executive of Weatherford International (WFT Quote), the fourth-largest services firm, said job cuts would likely be unavoidable amid a sharp downturn in North American activity.

"We have been consistent in our view that our results would be affected in the event of a severe global economic downturn, which we are now facing," Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Gould said then.