March 2015

Royal Dutch Shell will reportedly cut at least 250 more jobs this year at its UK North Sea operations.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commerce Department said Wednesday a unit of Paris-based Schlumberger Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $232.7 million penalty for conspiracy to violate trade sanctions with Iran and Sudan.

Halliburton shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the company’s long-awaited merger with Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes also announced on Friday that its stockholders adopted the merger agreement, thereby approving the merger. Each company held their own special meetings Friday morning.

In the boom years of the US shale oil industry, profitability was something of an optional extra. Companies were focused on growth, it was easy to raise capital, and making a decent return on investment could be put off for another day.

Houston-based Linn Energy has teamed up with private equity firm Quantum Energy for a $1 billion asset purchase plan.

OPEC and lower global oil prices delivered a one-two punch to the drillers in North Dakota and Texas who brought the U.S. one of the biggest booms in the history of the global oil industry.

At this point in the oil slump, dreaded jobs cuts hardly come as a surprise anymore; this week, Talisman Energy let go of 200 employees while Neven energy cut 400. But how many total American jobs have low oil prices cost? A recent Forbes article estimates at least 75,000—about 12 percent of the nation’s oil and gas workforce—so far.

China’s Sinopec has become the latest oil major to cut its capital expenditure, after the slide in crude prices knocked nearly one-third from its 2014 profit.

Australia-based Woodside Petroleum is reportedly cutting 300 jobs and freezing pay in response to low oil prices.

TAPI faces an uncertain future with the recent oil price fall, ambiguity regarding transit via Afghanistan and an increase in the estimated project cost.