Conoco cuts 80 Alaska jobs

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Conoco Phillips is eliminating 80 jobs in Alaska as the company tightens spending in response to the steep decline from last year’s record oil prices, a company spokesman announced today.

Charlie Rowton, a spokesman at Conoco’s corporate headquarters in Houston, said 40 Alaska employees are being laid off and being given severance packages and another 40 are being transferred out of Alaska. He wouldn’t elaborate on what types of jobs are involved. Employees involved were notified today, the company said.

The company has about 1,200 employees in Alaska.

The Alaska layoffs come as part of Conoco’s plan to cut its global work force of 33,800 employees by 4 percent.

In announcing the planned cuts in January, Conoco chief executive Jim Mulva said the company was deferring or slowing some capital spending projects because of lower oil prices.

“We are positioning ourselves in the current business environment to live within our means in order to maintain financial strength,” he said.

Conoco is Alaska’s top oil and gas producer. It holds a large stake in Prudhoe Bay, the nation’s largest oil field, and it runs two other major North Slope oil fields, Kuparuk and Alpine.

Prices for North Slope crude delivered to West Coast ports crested above $140 a barrel last year, then plunged to below $26 in December and on Tuesday closed at $44.65. Now companies operating in Alaska are moderating their spending plans to account for the decline.

Last week, the Italian oil company Eni told state officials it’s curtailing development of its new Nikaitchuq oil field on the Slope. The action is expected to result in job losses at contracting companies building the field.

—WESLEY LOY, Anchorage Daily News