ConocoPhillips will lay off 300 Canadian workers after selling most local assets to domestic crude producer Cenovus Energy Inc., the Houston-based company said on May 4.
ConocoPhillips in March agreed to sell oil sands and western natural gas assets to Cenovus for C$17 billion (US$12.4 billion), making it the latest international oil major to pull back from a region beset by high costs and low crude prices.
Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA, which late last year agreed to sell Canadian oil sands assets to local producer Athabasca Oil Corp, has also shed staff, a spokesman said on May 4, without disclosing the precise number.
The resulting layoffs will pile on to the high unemployment rate facing oil-producing Alberta province after the two-year crash in commodity prices. The unemployment rate was 8.4% in March, slightly down from months earlier, but still at a level not seen in more than 20 years.
ConocoPhillips spokesman Rob Evans said the layoffs will be mostly in the Canada's oil capital of Calgary, Alberta, and will occur by mid-May. The company had more than 2,000 staff in Canada as of late 2015.
Global energy majors have sold off more than $22.5 billion worth of Canadian oil sands assets so far this year to domestic companies.
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