Fall in oil prices causes wave of layoffs in big oil – World

 2:02 p.m.
 |
 Expansion-Ripe .- The oil companies have not only announced the dismissal of thousands of people, including the reducing dividends and divestitures.

The annual results of oil have shown the effects of a crude minimum for these companies. In the full year, these companies have won four times less, with some of them even featuring loss above 3,000 million.

As a result, the oil companies have decided to prepare for the worst. This was stated by CEO of American ConocoPhillips , Ryan Lance, who acknowledged “not knowing how long the downtrend” and considered “prudent planning for low prices over a long period of time.”

in this line, the US Chevron announced the elimination of 6,000 to 7,000 jobs, while the acquisition of British BG by Shell will be settled with the dismissal of 10,000 workers.

in addition, most of these companies have decided to reduce their investments and exploration expenditures. Shell has sold assets in the past two years over 20,000 million dollars (18,000 million euros) and ConocoPhillips will cut 66% dividend.

From here, the adoption of new measures will depend on the evolution of oil prices in the coming months, after starting the year breaking lows of $ 27 per barrel. At present, crude Brent , the European benchmark, trading around $ 33.

“If rapid recovery the damage will be less occurs and many of the companies recovered much of its value, “said analyst XTB Álvaro García-Capelo, stressing that the problem of these companies has been” primarily or exclusively “ falling prices.

Meanwhile, analyst Felipe Lopez-Galvez SelfBank warns that “these levels for companies and producing countries do not begin to sprout accounts”, a situation that in his opinion “should end up resulting in an production cut . “

” what is clear is that as we recover previous levels to drop, if you know it, companies fracking it think twice before jumping into the market, “says García-Capelo.

Lack of agreement and rumors

However, the future remains uncertain oil and its price remains mired in an area affected by doubts about the global economy volatility, market oversupply and continued rumors an agreement between the major producers to cut production.

This week the expected agreement seemed closer with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela and Russia announcing its intention to freeze its oil production levels of last January. However, “the market is willing to listen to an agreement to cut production, not freezing,” says López-Gálvez.

decides to adopt the position that will also be important for the stability of oil Iran , after seeing lifted the sanctions imposed by the international community and to resume its oil exports, warned of its intention to increase its production to “previous levels” of sanctions.

the minister’s remarks Iranian Oil welcoming the agreement to freeze the production of these countries and showing their support for “efforts” aimed at stabilizing prices were well received at first, with Brent scoring rises above 5 %.

However, in addition to the lack of commitment by Iran must take into account their diplomatic problems with Saudi Arabia, “who calls the shots in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC) and do not help to achieve an agreement, “recalls Lopez-Galvez.

in addition,” if come to fruition, this agreement take some time to be implemented permanently “making augur a short-term period of lower prices and forced to adapt to the new situation oil.