National Oilwell Varco to cut 900 jobs due to weak oil prices

National Oilwell Varco Norway has announced plans to reduce its employees by up to 900 as the company looks to cut costs due to weak oil price.

The layoff is expected to bring total job cuts in 2015 to 2,400.

National Oilwell informed employees through email that manufacturing operations in southern as well as western Norway would be halted.

The company’s latest decision follows its previous announcement made in June 2015 to cut 900 permanent jobs and 600 contract workers from its North Sea operations, out of a total workforce of about 5,000.

National Oilwell Varco said in a statement: "The management of National Oilwell Varco Norway understands that this creates uncertainty among our many employees.

"We will continue to focus on the importance of carrying out an orderly process that takes care of all employees in the best possible way."

By 2014-end the company had 63,642 employees worldwide and its Norwegian arm contributed about 4% of the company’s $21.44bn in total revenue during the year.

National Oilwell Varco provides equipment and components that are used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, as well as supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry.

The company has operations in over 1,200 locations across six continents.

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Image: National Oilwell Varco headquarters in Greater Sharpstown, Houston. Photo: courtesy of WhisperToMe