The low oil prices and refocusing on oil production have taken a hit on Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy as the company confirmed Tuesday it is laying off about 200 workers and plans still more in the coming months.
Spokesman John Porretto issued a statement explaining that as the company announced last month, Devon is making bold and transformational changes to compete with the best in the industry.
“A major component of this transformation is aligning our cost structure with the go-forward business. Unfortunately, this will include layoffs,” said Porretto who is director of Corporation Communications at Devon.
He further explained that most job reductions will be connection with Devon’s separation of assets in North Texas and Canada, there will be more reductions at the Oklahoma City headquarters and at some field locations.
“The full extent of those reductions has not been finalized for all departments, but layoffs during February and March are expected to total approximately 200 employees,” added Porretto. “We expect the majority of companywide job reductions to take place in 2019. Devon is providing impacted employees with a separation package that includes severance.”
Devon employs about 2,850 companywide. About 1,360 employees work at its corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City.
Just last month, the company announced plans to sell its Canadian and Barnett Shale assets. The sale was considered to be the final move in the company’s effort to focus primarily on oil growth from wells in U.S. shale fields.