Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Two offshore drilling companies are cutting around 200 Houston-based jobs on Gulf of Mexico rigs, according to a Houston Business Journal report.
According to the report, Switzerland-basedTransocean Ltd. and Houston-based Atwood Oceanics Inc. notified the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) of the cuts late last month. Approximately 110 to 120 employees on Transocean’s Deepwater Asgard and about 86 employees on the Atwood Condor will be affected.
Both companies told the TWC the cuts would occur or begin on Jan. 30, according to separate Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letters sent on Jan. 25. Both rigs are being closed, or “stacked,” because they currently are not under a drilling contract.
Atwood said it expects to retain some employees at the Condor’s stacking location, and Transocean notes it might recall a percentage of the affected employees if it gets a contract for additional work. However, both companies said the job cuts are permanent, and affected employees do not have bumping rights, meaning workers with more seniority cannot take jobs from those with less seniority. Transocean also notes that all affected employees will be offered a severance package.
Also in January, Transocean cut another 70 to 80 Houston-based jobs on another stacked rig, after it cut a couple hundred such jobs last year. The company told the TWC it would cut up to 190 jobs on two deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico –Discoverer Deep Seas and Deepwater Champion – in February 2017 and between 70 and 80 jobs on the Discover Americasdrilling rig in March.
02/07/2017
