Suncor Energy is cutting as much as 15 percent of its workforce—a total of 2,000 jobs—as demand destruction and low prices have created an adapt or die scenario for oil companies to contend with.
Suncor notified its employees on Friday that it would make the cuts within the next 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg.
The Calgary-based oil company is unsure exactly what form the job cuts will take—whether it will be in the form of natural attribution, early retirements, voluntary buyouts, or another method.
Suncor’s job cuts follow Shell’s job cuts earlier this week and the suicide of a BP executive who was laid off during the oil company’s struggle to adapt to the conditions created in the oil market by the coronavirus pandemic.
They are not the only companies that have taken to cutting jobs, and cutting jobs isn’t the only method oil companies are using to conform to the new normal.
The shale patch has seen a rash of bankruptcies over the last few months. The most recent examples of shale patch bankruptcies include Oasis Petroleum and Lonestar Resources, but the number of bankruptcies are measured in the dozens.
The IEA, OPEC, BP, and Total all have issued grim forecasts of oil demand growth and industry in general, and oil companies are scrambling to make changes that will allow them to survive over the course of not just a few weeks or months or even years should these grisly forecasts turn out to be accurate.
A few weeks ago, Suncor revised downward its projected production for the year, estimating that it would average between 680,000 bpd and 710,000 bpd—lower than its previous estimate of between 740,000 bpd and 780,000 bpd following a fire at its Base Plant mine in August.
