Haliburton Furloughs 3,500 Staff

Oil field service company Haliburton has furloughed roughly 3,500 workers at its Houston headquarters in response to plunging crude prices.

The firm announced workers take mandatory time-off set to last as long as 60 days. Employees are now moving to work one-week-on, one-week-off schedules, and will not receive pay during off weeks in an effort to meet “difficult market” conditions.

Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. shale play, are expected to see major impacts of the new low-oil-price environment as they typically need break-even price of above US$47.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the firm is one of the world's largest oil field service firms with operations in more than 70 countries and about 55,000 employees globally.