THE GLOBAL oilfield and information services company Schlumberger is to cut 69 jobs at its Northern Ireland operation.
The US-owned company employs approximately 300 people in Newtownabbey in Co Antrim. The plant manufactures oil equipment for the North Sea and international markets.
A Schlumberger spokeswoman said that, because of a downturn in its business, the parent company was proposing to implement redundancies at its Belfast centre.
Last month Schlumberger reported a 57 per cent fall in second-quarter earnings. The group said second-quarter revenue had fallen to $5.53 billion (€3.9 billion) from $6 billion in the first three months of the year, primarily because oil and natural gas producers were no longer committing to major projects. Schlumberger said at the time it was aware that a number of projects were continuing to be postponed or cancelled.
The group, which employs 87,000 people worldwide, had warned that it would continue to reduce its global workforce as a result of the slowdown in oil/gas exploration and production spending. The company last year closed a Cork-based IT helpdesk operation.
Schlumberger intends to hold talks with trade union officials in Northern Ireland about the proposed redundancies which could take place as early as next month.
The Alliance Party enterprise spokesman Seán Neeson said any potential job losses at the Newtownabbey engineering firm would be “devastating for both the staff affected and the wider community”.
Elsewhere in the North there was a positive development for the 1,000-strong staff at the Ballymena-based bus company the Wright Group. It had previously announced plans to cut 235 jobs following the cancellation of a major contract. But managing director Mark Nodder said it has reduced the proposed redundancies by 60 per cent.
