Fmr. Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister Warns of More than 40,000 Oil Industry Layoffs

‘We know how to close the door on spending money, but that results in the layoffs of tens of thousands of people’

“These are people that work in really rough conditions, all kinds of weather, and they bring us the oil we need every day. And when the oil industry begins to shut down cost spending, they’re very good at it, and we know how to close the door on spending money, but that results in the layoffs of tens of thousands of people. I estimate for every rig that shuts down — and we’ve shut down about 500 rigs already since October — about a 100 jobs disappear, not just from the rig, but from the factories that produce the materials that supply the rigs …

I think the Saudis have become quite competitive and they are trying to test not only the U.S. shale, but they are also testing fellow OPEC members. When OPEC cuts back production to hold the price up, guess who cuts back production? It's mainly the Saudis. And the Saudis are also, I think, entering a foreign, an international relations dispute here, where they don’t mind hurting Iran because they don’t think the U.S. is on the right path with Iran, and they don’t mind hurting Russia because Russia is so, you know, so expansionary at this point. So they’re playing their own international relations strategy with the oil price.”

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