Oxy Lays Off 80 Workers at Drilling Unit

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. laid off 80 workers at the Bakersfield headquarters of its oil and gas drilling subsidiary because of low oil prices and competitive pressures. The company also said in an internal memo that it would cut another 180 jobs at the Bakersfield office of Occidental Oil & Gas Corp., which previously employed 395. Fifty of those jobs will be transferred to a new services division, the memo said. Occidental employs slightly more than 12,000 people worldwide. “Every one of us is aware that our performance, as a company, has not kept pace with our industry peers as evidenced by our stock price,” division President Roger Abel said in the memo to employees. “The pressure to improve profitability has intensified in the current industry environment in which oil prices have fallen to a 12-year low, and competitive challenges are mounting throughout the industry at an accelerated pace.”