Some 766 South Valley Layoffs Told
December 11,2015-
With Kern County crude prices close to $30 this week the worldwide oil glut is pushing companies with oil-related investments and facilities in Kern County to announce mass layoffs here. The state WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) process published December 10 lists a handful of companies giving notice in the past month of 766 job layoffs that will be implemented or have been, by February.
Oil patch companies giving notice recently are Bakersfield’s Golden State Drilling with 104 job layoffs, Bakersfield’s Construction Specialty Services listing 61 jobs, and Brinderson LP who has oil field operations in Taft, Tupman ,Los Hills, Coalinga and San Ardo near the San Luis Obispo,Monterey County line. Layoffs were noticed in conjunction with the company’s third quarter financial results release.
Houston-based C&J Energy also posted job layoff notices at two subsidiaries in the county – C&J Well Services with 161 job losses to be completed by early February and KVS Transportation,a trucking firm based in Bakersfield with 111 layoffs. Notice on these 2 firms came December 8. Calls to C&J were not returned.
The company’s third quarter report said it net loss increased 42% from the previous quarter. C&J stock has dropped from a year high of $18.45 in May to around $5 today.
“These results were caused by an overall reduction in customer activity coupled with a further pricing concessions required by the highly competitive environment, as well as oil prices and the rig count continue to fall and operators further tightened capital spending. We took additional steps to control costs and right-size the business, including idling excess equipment, reducing headcount and closing facilities.”
The company president remarked that they – like others – are reacting to their customers pullback facing the glut of oil in the marketplace.
“ The sudden drop in oil prices through the early part of the third quarter took me by surprise, and some of our strongest customers begin to delay previously scheduled activity.”