Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) announced to its employees on Tuesday that the company would lay off between 5,000 and 6,500 employees due to low crude oil prices and the concomitant slowdown in demand for Halliburton’s oilfield services expertise. Halliburton currently employs about 80,000 people worldwide.

According to an exclusive report in the Houston Business Journal, the job cuts are not related to the planned acquisition of Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI). Baker Hughes has already said that it would cut at least 7,000 jobs and the industry’s largest company, Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) will eliminate 9,000 jobs. Weatherford International Inc. (NYSE: WFT) last week announced a layoff of 8,000 workers by the end of June.

CEO Dave Lesar reportedly notified Halliburton employees by email of the job cuts.

The even worse news here is that if and when the Halliburton acquisition of Baker Hughes is completed the combined companies will almost certainly fire additional hundreds of employees in the name of synergies.

Crude oil prices, which had been rising for the past several day, have dropped nearly 5% on the Nymex today to around $50 a barrel for March delivery. And the price could be headed lower — a lot lower — before it begins a real recovery.

Halliburton’s shares traded down about 3% on the day at $42.27 in a 52-week range of $37.21 to $74.33.

ALSO READ: Why Oil Lows Are Confusing Solar Investors

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.