Anyone seen anything solid on rig counts for 2015 from any of the independents?

Nothing "solid" but Transoceanic Is talking about stacking a third. One " analyst" I read said about 500 stacked in 15. It will start with the older floaters and then the ones in the yards . Hopefully it stops at these levels.

Halliburton had the management go through and rank employees within each pay band so in the event there are cuts that need to be made, this ranking will aid in determining who needs to go. Luckily I work for a boss who has years of experience here and knows exactly what this ranking means and knows to bump everyone on his team up as high as possible so that all layoffs fall in the other departments.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a 10% reduction in the headcount in the western hemisphere, that's even before you throw in the cuts or upcoming selloffs for the baker hughes merger.

What I need to figure out is what to do about the offer I have to work for another company,.... My thoughts are that if the new company ever needed to make cuts I would most likely be the first to let go versus here where I have some tenure and stability....

Trim the fat and get stronger as an organization, hope that is what we do...

Ouch!!! Hal has usually been a pretty good barometer regarding the state of the industry ( employment side ). When they start to cut lots of smaller cos get spooked and join in.
Damn

A few weeks ago there was an email from the top warning us about upcoming cuts needing to be made for the current oil market...

'While I look forward with great excitement to achieving the benefits of the
acquisition, we will not be immune to market conditions, and right now it looks
like 2015 is going to be a tough year. We have been through these before and
know how to navigate them while maintaining our focus on the future. We will
have to make reductions to our structure as any prudent business would. But I
want to be clear these reductions are related to market conditions, not the
acquisition. It's important to remember that distinction as we go forward. '

Aren't part of those cuts due to the Baker merger?

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A few weeks ago there was an email from the top warning us about upcoming cuts needing to be made for the current oil market...

'While I look forward with great excitement to achieving the benefits of the
acquisition, we will not be immune to market conditions, and right now it looks
like 2015 is going to be a tough year. We have been through these before and
know how to navigate them while maintaining our focus on the future. We will
have to make reductions to our structure as any prudent business would. But I
want to be clear these reductions are related to market conditions, not the
acquisition. It's important to remember that distinction as we go forward. '

---

Being an ex-Baker guy, there's just no way I believe that. Baker did the same thing when we bought BJ, they took the opportunity to trim fat. There's no way I'm buying into Haliburton saying it's not due to the acquisition.

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A few weeks ago there was an email from the top warning us about upcoming cuts needing to be made for the current oil market...

'While I look forward with great excitement to achieving the benefits of the
acquisition, we will not be immune to market conditions, and right now it looks
like 2015 is going to be a tough year. We have been through these before and
know how to navigate them while maintaining our focus on the future. We will
have to make reductions to our structure as any prudent business would. But I
want to be clear these reductions are related to market conditions, not the
acquisition. It's important to remember that distinction as we go forward. '

---

Being an ex-Baker guy, there's just no way I believe that. Baker did the same thing when we bought BJ, they took the opportunity to trim fat. There's no way I'm buying into Haliburton saying it's not due to the acquisition.

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Seems like all they are saying is that the cuts due to redundancy will be part of a separate announcement. Pretty straightforward.

Interesting and informative thread. 26 pages, and not one mention of chemicals...as usual. It's like I was born in an alternative and forgotten universe. We still care about the same molecules, but the world of energy, geology, engineering, big oil, and production seems as foreign to me as Klingon.

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Halliburton had the management go through and rank employees within each pay band so in the event there are cuts that need to be made, this ranking will aid in determining who needs to go. Luckily I work for a boss who has years of experience here and knows exactly what this ranking means and knows to bump everyone on his team up as high as possible so that all layoffs fall in the other departments.

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Every company does this, even when there aren'timpending cuts. It's prudent to know who your top employees are, and where your non-top performers are that are in roles where you need to keep them around for other reasons (SME knowledge, etc.). Not saying HAL won't make cuts, because it's evident that they will, but I wouldn't read into this as being an isolated event related directly to recent market conditions.

XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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Luckily I work for a boss who has years of experience here and knows exactly what this ranking means and knows to bump everyone on his team up as high as possible so that all layoffs fall in the other departments.

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That is interesting. The company I work for (not in energy sector) doesn't allow that to happen. Any team bigger than 7 or 8 people has to be ranked in a normal distribution. Yeah, I know, not fair if you have a strong team, but it prevents grade inflation.

I believe these cuts are independent o the acquisition and there will still be a overlap cut when it goes through. You are talking end of Q2 at the earliest. We are going to shed at lot of blood between now and then if this keeps up.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/23/taxpayers-could-be-on-the-hook-for-trillions-in-oil-derivatives/
Interesting article, I wish I knew more about all of this and could understand it better.

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XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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You realize their campus is almost done, right?

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XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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You realize their campus is almost done, right?

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So you don't think there are people who thought they could handle it, but after driving to the Woodlands after purposefully living in town have decided it ain't worth it?

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XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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You realize their campus is almost done, right?

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So you don't think there are people who thought they could handle it, but after driving to the Woodlands after purposefully living in town have decided it ain't worth it?

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I have picked up two folks in the last few months from XOM for that reason alone. Pretty interesting they would.leave duento.the commute but we love having them and thier experience.

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XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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Shell ranks us every year, it's part of our bonus

As does CVX.

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XOM ranks as well but we're losing people to retirements and not wanting to go to the Woodlands.

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Shell ranks us every year, it's part of our bonus

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Actually Shell is very specific to say they do not do rankings. While your rating gives you an indication of where you stand, it is not a ranking. I would agree that you should know if your on the chopping block though.

At Exxon do you actually get a 1,2,3,4... Etc?

Most rate vs stack rank.

Think there is anything significant to prices stabilizing the last couple of weeks?

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Think there is anything significant to prices stabilizing the last couple of weeks?

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Looks to me like $55 is a fair price that should over time bring supply down to the level of demand. I predict we will see $40-60 oil for at least the next year. US supply has surged from 5MM to 10MM BPD over the last 3 years. Saudi is determined to bring that number down to around 7.5MM. I won't be surprised if oil stays around $55 for the next 3 years. There just isn't enough world demand to balance all of the supply of oil that $75/bbl brings.

Unrest in Libya along their pipeline and storage depot has helped stabilize the fall... For now.

Jeff,
Had long talk with friend who is big wig with a major and he concurred with your number. Also confirmed a probable drop in the rig count of approximately 500-600 rigs. If this holds true Texas and Houston in particular is going to suffer BUT it won't be an 80's style bust. It could still cost us 100,000-175,000 jobs but that's still not close to the 80's disaster.

assuming a lot of these jobs would be field handsassociatedto the slowdown in drilling g and associated service industry.

About to make new lows. Time to short oil stocks so overpriced based off this oil price.

Okay, I'll say a few words about chemicals...pretty pathetic if I'm considered knowledgeable, but while all of you were over at some big engineering building learning how to use divining rods, make holes in the ground, and hook tinker toys together, I was making molecules down the street. The chemical industry on the gulf coast is natural gas based, and will be that way for the coming decades. Depressed gas prices are great on the front end, because our feeds are dirt cheap, which means that shale gas has moved chemical investment back to the US from the ME. Margins have been great, and oil companies that have gas-based chemicals are making a boat-load of money, helping offset the decline in crude. The problem in a few years is going to be over-capacity, and just like drilling, economically disadvantaged plants will suffer. An even bigger problem would be a depressed general economy...since it doesn't matter how good your margins are if there's nobody to buy the plastic. Petrochemicals is probably about 10 - 15% of the total "oil" economy, but it's pretty important, and I wonder how much the big guys are relying on their chemical portfolios to keep them afloat.

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Luckily I work for a boss who has years of experience here and knows exactly what this ranking means and knows to bump everyone on his team up as high as possible so that all layoffs fall in the other departments.

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You don't think every other boss is doing the same thing with his or her department?

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Okay, I'll say a few words about chemicals...pretty pathetic if I'm considered knowledgeable, but while all of you were over at some big engineering building learning how to use divining rods, make holes in the ground, and hook tinker toys together, I was making molecules down the street. The chemical industry on the gulf coast is natural gas based, and will be that way for the coming decades. Depressed gas prices are great on the front end, because our feeds are dirt cheap, which means that shale gas has moved chemical investment back to the US from the ME. Margins have been great, and oil companies that have gas-based chemicals are making a boat-load of money, helping offset the decline in crude. The problem in a few years is going to be over-capacity, and just like drilling, economically disadvantaged plants will suffer. An even bigger problem would be a depressed general economy...since it doesn't matter how good your margins are if there's nobody to buy the plastic. Petrochemicals is probably about 10 - 15% of the total "oil" economy, but it's pretty important, and I wonder how much the big guys are relying on their chemical portfolios to keep them afloat.

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Yep. This is where I come in. Chemical manufacturing is going to be critical for many of these companies to stay on solid footing. A cheap and abundant feedstock and a market to push plastics will likely be stronger. Weak in one part of the supply chain means opportunity in another. This is where I do my best work

Not sure if this has been asked, what is y'all's gauge on the direct/indirect effect in Dallas? Was thinking about buying a house soon and was worried about the local housing market to an extent.

Dallas should be better off. The energy industry isn't as big there as it was in the 80's and even then the hit it took wasn't as bad as Houston. The economy in Dallas is more diversified.

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Not sure if this has been asked, what is y'all's gauge on the direct/indirect effect in Dallas? Was thinking about buying a house soon and was worried about the local housing market to an extent.

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It's still Dallass!