Houston: Seadrill Americas, part of one of the world’s largest offshore drilling contractors, will lay off a swathe of staff after losing a contract from BP, the company said on Monday.
The Houston-based firm, US arm of the Bermuda-based and London operated parent Seadrill, announced that it would have to eliminate 159 offshore jobs and four onshore jobs assigned to a rig for the West Sirius field in the Gulf of Mexico, which BP announced it was cancelling last week.
It was one of two contracts BP cancelled last week, the other being with Ensco, and the British supermajor oil producer explained that the rigs were “surplus to requirements following BP’s adjustment of capital expenditures in response to the new, lower oil price environment.”
Seadrill’s job cuts will happen gradually over the coming months. It announced the cuts in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission, the state agency for workforce development. In the letter Seadrill said the BP deal was a “major contract with a principal client.”
