What with brent crude now $48 a barrel, BP, Connoco Phillips, Shell and other companies laying off staff have any of you oiler H.S.E. people got a bail out plan or you gonna weather the wage freezes / rate reductions?

All current O&G project will be ring-fenced regarding capital expenditure and continue to be built/expanded regardless.

Hopefully OPEC will have achieved their aim by 3rd or 4th Q this year and reduce production to meet consumer demand.

I don't think that Capex is ring fenced, nothing is set in stone, in fact, capex isn't ring fenced, here's an example

Talisman Sinopec cancels Archer modular rig contract before it begins - See more at: http:// social.decomworld.com/companies/talisman-sinopec-cancels-archer-modular-rig-contract-it-begins#sthash.LFxBCiMt.dpuf

As for you downstream punters, you are generally in a bit of a different arena, if you're core team, in a refinery or depot possibly, then yes, core team are generally safe.

I'm safe too, I jumped onto a nice contract overseas before the price tanked. 2 years abroad, might have recovered once I'm back, hopefully it'll drive down Aberdeen rents.

The whole arrangement is a nightmare though, 300 people in Talisman paid off yesterday and 9000 at Haliburton due, Baker are also looking at laying people off, Schlumberger are laying off too.

Well, at $110 a barrel and some cost of fields arond $20 a barrel to produce, they could let a lot slide really and some people were carried along, now, with some fields not breaking even, high liability and lots of backlog on maintenance, generally the safety critical stuff was caught up on though non safety critical is still a high backlog, they are tightening up on key people.

As for the transferable skills, O&G safety is to a high standard generally. As for getting in, its a bit of a closed shop at times, lots of family and friends get hired though some can break in. Being in heavy engineering would stand an applicant in good stead.

I operate as a contractor in this sector and I can tell you a lot of environmental projects have been put on hold. Even safe disposal of waste streams seem to have taken a knock.

Any of you oilers had any change in your fortunes? Oil up to $70, not all roses but not bad.

This puts some numbers on it - 65 thousand job losses in the UK and still increasing....and next year will be worse as current projects finish, with virtually nothing new in the offing;
http://www.bbc.com/news/...otland-business-34193720

This is only my opinion, but these crashes in O&G are generally needed to rationalise the costs. Rig day rates, union pressure for pay increases and better rotations and barrel cost propaganda will always come to a blow. Like the last crash in the industry, it will boom again, however you must stand the test of time.

Unfortunately firms will take advantage of these times, freeze salaries, equipment obsolescence and remove the weaker links of the work force. Unfortunately if a rig has no contract there are no job's hence major redundancies which are being seen.

Every cloud!!!………. Day rates for units are getting more competitive. I have actually seen (a recently built) MODU going for a 5 figure day rate. This means, rigs are less likely to be stacked if hiring (although cheap) therefore resulting in job creation. A company does not want a stacked rig (no returns), an operational rig needs crew (jobs)!

If you are in the industry ride the storm, work hard and try to justify why you are an asset, hopefully this will at least get you a transfer. If you are not…. keep a look out as when the rig hiring booms again, and prices increase - jobs will becoming available.

In the meantime I wish all those from OG well, and other industries for that matter. Job loss regardless of reason is a very difficult time (been there :(. Good luck!

$36 per barrel this morning. Dire times eh?

Never like to see anyone lose their job but O&G drove the prices up and up and a lot of people was suffering due to it.

Still 20$ oil is beneficial for some countries such as UAE, Iran, Iraq as the cost of one barrel is around 9 to 12 USD for them

SHV

Just checked today's price - $32.87 a barrel..........