@effinbirds: “I’m a classy motherfucker, so I won’t tell you what I really think.”
The Flying Dutchman:
But… drill, baby, drill… no?
… oh, wait….
A proportion (25% to 100%) of the water used in hydraulic fracturing is not recovered, and consequently this water is lost permanently to re-use, which differs from some other water uses in which water can be recovered and processed for re-use.
ConocoPhillips to cut up to quarter of staff as oil prices slide, Job losses at US major are latest in swath of cutbacks affecting sector by Jamie Smyth in New York, Sept 9, 2025, Financial Times
ConocoPhillips plans to slash up to a quarter of its workforce by the end of 2026 as part of a cost-cutting drive, following a sharp drop in global oil prices.
The US oil and gas company said the majority of the anticipated 2,600 to 3,250 job losses would take place this year and would affect full-time staff and contractors.
“We are always looking at how we can be more efficient 
destroy air, land, water, health and safety as we steal more from ordinary families so that our our execs can take more millions annually with the resources we have. As part of this process, we have informed employees that a 20 to 25 per cent reduction in our global workforce, which includes employees and contractors, is anticipated,” said ConocoPhillips.
“The majority of these reductions will take place in 2025.”
The job losses at ConocoPhillips, which are designed to maintain profits and shareholder returns, are the latest in a swath of cutbacks affecting the oil and gas sector, as companies race to streamline their operations following a 12.5 per cent fall in oil prices this year.
Chevron announced in February that it would cut a fifth of its employees, while BP said last month that it planned to reduce its 40,000 office staff by at least 15 per cent, as part of a continuing effort to reduce costs.
Analysts said the oil industry was readjusting following bumper profits in 2022 and 2023 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which sparked a surge in oil and gas prices.
Many companies are seeking to boost efficiencytranslation: steal from ordinary workers and their families to keep the rich getting richerto ensure they can continue to reward shareholders through buybacks and higher dividends despite weaker oil prices. Some of the larger oil majors are also integrating and consolidating operations after a $300bn merger and acquisition spree in the upstream oil and gas sectors in 2023 and 2024.
ConocoPhillips in November confirmed its $22.5bn acquisition of Marathon Oil Corporation, projecting annual synergies of $1bn within 12 months.
Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips’ chief executive, told investors on a conference call last month that he had identified a further $1bn in cost reduction and margin enhancement opportunities related to the Marathon takeover.
“There’s . . . workforce centralisation, some things we’ve learned over the last three to four years with all the transactions we’ve done, that we’re going to be implementing . . . globally throughout the company,” he said.
Big Oil slashes jobs and investments as low crude prices take toll, Industry warned of ‘flashing red warning light’ as executives brace for a downturn that may last years by Malcolm Moore in London and Jamie Smyth in New York, Sept 9, 2025, Financial Times
The world’s biggest oil and gas companies are cutting jobs, slashing costs and scaling back investments at the fastest pace since the coronavirus market collapse, as executives brace for a prolonged period of lower crude prices.
Thousands of jobs have been cut across the industry at companies including Chevron and BP, with tens of billions of additional cost savings promised. Spending plans have been reined in, with some projects paused or put up for sale as groups seek to balance the books.
The US shale industry has been hit particularly hard, with ConocoPhillips last week becoming the latest to axe staff in response to the downturn.
“This isn’t just a Conoco problem,” Kirk Edwards, head of Latigo Petroleum, an independent producer in Texas, said of the job losses. “It’s a flashing red warning light for the entire US oil and gas industry.”
Even the largest state-run energy companies have not been immune, with Saudi Aramco selling a $10bn stake in a pipeline network to raise cash and Petronas of Malaysia cutting 5,000 jobs from its workforce.
Crude prices have halved from the peak that followed Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while an Opec+ decision at the weekend to continue boosting output, despite forecasts of a looming supply glut, will add to the price pressure.
The cartel has over the past five months pivoted from a strategy of restraining production and propping up prices to winning back market share and crushing higher-cost rivals in the US and other non-Opec nations.
Wood Mackenzie has forecast benchmark Brent crude would fall below $60 a barrel in early 2026 and remain there for “up to a few years” — barring a geopolitical shock. Brent traded at just under $66 on Monday.
At less than $60 none of the big western oil companies can cover their investment plans and the dividends and buybacks that investors expect. Morgan Stanley expects them to cut their buybacks in the months ahead, while BP has already done so.
Borrowing levels, meanwhile, have crept back up to the levels last seen prior to the 2022 oil boom that allowed producers to pay down their debt.
Capital spending on global oil and gas production is forecast to drop 4.3 per cent this year to $341.9bn, the first annual fall in investment since 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie.
The US Energy Information Administration last month said the slowdown in capital investment in the US would cause production in the world’s biggest oil-producing nation to fall for the first time since 2021.
The human consequences are stark in Texas, centre of the US industry and location of the giant oil-producing Permian Basin. ConocoPhillips chief executive Ryan Lance told employees that as many as one in four of them, or up to 3,250 people, would be out of work by Christmas. Chevron’s cuts of up to 8,000 jobs have been under way since February.
Both companies have been pushing through sweeping restructurings following big acquisitions, with management consultancies hired to oversee the reductions.
“The way we protect the most jobs for the most people is by remaining competitive,” Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth said last month. “We have to take control of our own future.”
In the UK, BP in January said it was cutting 4,700 jobs in an effort to improve shareholder returns.
ExxonMobil is best placed among the oil majors, analysts say, owing to its low debt and free cash flows that exceeded $14bn in the first half of 2025.
Big oil companies are also leaning on outsourcing and new technologies, with administrative, accounting and skilled engineering jobs moving to countries such as India and artificial intelligence offering opportunities to do more with less.
“AI is giving operators new ways to optimise in a challenging market,” said Andrew Gillick at Enverus, an energy data company. “There will be more to come.”
US producers, which have outperformed their European peers for several years, are particularly exposed to the economics of shale oil, where drillers need a price of $65 a barrel to make a profit, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve. This is higher than the oilfields in the Middle East or many offshore locations.
The number of drill rigs and fracking crews has plunged to four-year lows, according to research by data provider Primary Vision and Baker Hughes.
Roe Patterson, managing director at Marauder Capital, a private equity group investing in the sector, said: “Domestic oil producers are finding it hard to make a case to maintain drilling and capital expenditure due to rising costs from tariffs and weak prices due to Opec production increases, which is costing jobs.”
“The problem is that our domestic oil production may not be there when the country needs it in the future.”
***
…
U.S. oil companies are now cutting their spending on new wells after two consecutive years of record-setting production during the Biden era, and analysts are rolling back their previous forecasts for production increases.
…
The oil and gas industry contributed an estimated $75 million to his campaign, despite some executives’ misgivings about a return of the trade chaos that raised energy companies’ prices and roiled their international markets during his first term. That amount was far less than the $1 billion that Trump had suggested….
… But the new glut threatens to capsize the U.S. oil industry, which has parlayed the shale oil revolution into a nearly two-decade boom to become the world’s biggest producer and a top-five exporter. …
Independent oil company EOG Resources on May 1 cut its investment plans by $200 million for 2025. Diamondback Energy, another independent oil company, warned that the economic uncertainty unleashed by Trump’s trade war would pull about 10 percent of the drilling rigs operating in the United States out of the field.
“As a result of these activity cuts, it is likely that U.S. onshore oil production has peaked and will begin to decline this quarter,” Diamondback Chief Executive Travis Stice said in a letter the company published Monday. “We believe we are at a tipping point for U.S. oil production at current commodity prices.”
OPEC’s contribution to falling oil prices dovetails with Trump’s promise to lower energy costs, said Paul Sankey, lead analyst at commodity firm Sankey Research — unwelcome news for the U.S. oil companies hoping for some sort of relief.
Saudi government officials ”haven’t said they’re going to crush the U.S. oil and gas industry, but it’s a foregone conclusion,” Sankey said in an interview. Meanwhile, “low oil prices is one of the things [Trump] can point to as a promise delivered.”
The problem is that the longer prices stay at current levels, the more the White House is putting at risk an oil industry that propelled the United States to the forefront of global energy markets, Sankey said.
2025 05 04: Saudis double down on seismic OPEC+ shift to sink oil prices