WPX Layoffs Hit Tulsa

WPX Energy, Inc. on Monday laid off 42 employees, including 38 at its Tulsa headquarters.

The oil and natural gas producer also cut three positions in Killdeer, North Dakota and one in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The layoffs represent 4% of the company’s total workforce and a 7 percent reduction in Tulsa.

Following the layoffs, WPX now employs 494 people at its Tulsa headquarters and 944 employees total.

“We’re a much different company than we were even a year ago,” WPX spokesman Kelly Swan said in a statement Monday.

WPX says it is providing those affected with support that includes up to one year of severance pay, a payment equal to 12 months of COBRA premiums and outplacement assistance.

WPX also consolidated its office in Denver and recently engineered a $5 billion makeover of its drilling portfolio.

The company has shifted its emphasis from natural gas to oil and reduced its operating areas from seven to three. WPX is now focused solely on the Permian, Williston and San Juan basins, according to a report in the Tulsa World.

The realignment is the result of a series of more than 10 divestitures and acquisitions and a strategy to triple operating margins and increase oil production fivefold.

Last week, WPX completed a $910 million sale of its operations in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin that were once its flagship. Today, the company is investing more capital in the Permian Basin than anywhere else.