Oil & gas layoffs have been grabbing the headlines in recent
months following the slump in oil price. Shocking numbers have been
bandied about by journalists billing this issue as one of the most
damaging outcomes of the sector's current market position. A
recent Bloomberg report suggested over 100,000 job losses have
flowed from the crisis globally, with key oil & gas hubs around
the world being hit hardest with high profile announcements being
made in almost every region.
Whilst these staff cuts are being attributed to the falling oil
price, the headlines mask a more difficult underlying issue which
has been slowly building across the industry over recent years and
was likely to have led to a proportion of the job cuts we are now
seeing. Producers have long been looking at the rising cost of
production and acknowledging that operations need to be
restructured to counteract a real risk to profitability.
Restructuring was therefore already in the pipeline across
