Schlumberger, the world’s biggest oil services company, on Friday said it would reduce its staff by 5,000 worldwide as it reported a 17 per cent drop in fourth-quarter earnings following the collapse of oil prices.
Andrew Gould, chairman and chief executive of Schlumberger, predicted a “very significant decline in [oil and gas] production” if the rate at which the industry drilled remained at its current depressed level for a year.
