Seadrill is cutting 112 Houston jobs that support the West Capricorn drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, effective 1 May.
Image of the West Capricorn, from the Seadrill West Capricorn Facebook page. |
A notice, sent to the Texas Workforce Commission on 14 April, stated that the job loss is out of Seadrill’s control.
“The extended standby of this major contract with a principal client is sudden, unexpected and outside of Seadrill’s control,” the drilling company said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Seadrill has its headquarters in London, and operates from six regional offices around the world: Oslo, Dubai, Houston, Singapore, Rio De Janeiro and Ciudad del Carmen. The company has a fleet of 68 rigs that comprises drillships, jackups, semisubmersibles and tender rigs.
The client, super supermajor BP, extended its standby period for the vessel, resulting in the permanent layoffs, which are expected to complete by 13 May. The West Capricorn semisubmersible was set to drill BP’s Ram Rock prospect, located in Green Canyon Block 124.
Just last month, BP announced it was cutting 500 Houston jobs, come June, as part of the company’s plan to cut some 4000 jobs from its global upstream sector by 2017.
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