With Weakest Sales in 14 Years, Schlumberger Cuts 21,000 Jobs

Schlumberger Ltd., the world's leading oilfield services provider, posted its weakest sales in 14 years and is cutting one-fifth of its workforce while warning that new waves of Covid-19 could derail the nascent recovery in global energy demand.
The second-quarter rout was so bad for Schlumberger that it’s spending $1 billion on job severance in a move that will shrink staffing to an 11-year low. 
Various restructuring and impairment charges cost it another $2.7 billion, the company said in a statement, Bloomberg reported.
“This has probably been the most challenging quarter in past decades,” Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said in the statement. 
“Subsequent waves of potential Covid-19 resurgence pose a negative risk to this outlook.”
Despite disastrous results in some business lines -- North American onshore fracking and other sales tumbled 60% from the previous quarter’s level -- Le Peuch shielded the 12.5-cent-a-share dividend from additional reductions. 
Just three months ago, the CEO reduced the payout for the first time in more than 40 years.
More than 21,000 workers are being let go, according to the statement. Schlumberger employed 105,000 as of the end of 2019.
The hired hands of the oil patch who map underground pockets of crude and drill new wells have seen some of the worst pain since the global pandemic first began to wreck energy markets.