Baker Hughes moved this week to layoff 234 workers at its Oklahoma City offices, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting oil price crisis.
The company notified the Oklahoma Department of Commerce using what is called a WARN or Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice filed with the Office of Workforce Development.
“The COVID-19 public health crisis poses unprecedented challenges to our business and to global economic activity, including an historic collapse in demand for oil & gas. This collapse
and the many challenges associated with the COVID-19 public health crises have converged with other unforeseeable business conditions, such as extraordinary macroeconomic and
geopolitical conditions (including unexpected surplus production and supply), to precipitate plummeting oil prices and a drastic reduction in exploration/drilling/production activity within the North American oil and gas market,” stated Holly L. Page
Human Resource Leader for Baker Hughes in the notice.
The layoffs are expected to be permanent, however the facility will still remain open after this layoff event according to the notice. It also indicated there would be “no worked” performed at the offices and employees would be paid for a 14-day notice period and certain benefits will continue for six months following the layoff.
“We were unable to provide earlier or greater notice because these unforeseeable business conditions and the COVID-19 natural disaster have suddenly, dramatically and negatively
impacted the market and reduced the overall need for the services and products provided by Baker Hughes,” added Page in her WARN notice.
She also provided a list of those losing their jobs:
Position # of Impacted
Accounting Clerk 1
Administrative Assistant – ARMO 1
Administrative Assistant – Sales, Central Region 1
AMO Coordinator 1
AMO Supervisor 2
AMO Tech – 4.75 SU Tech 3
AMO Tech – Disassembly 10
AMO Tech – Hydraulic 4
AMO Tech – Land based SU 4
AMO Tech – Loss Circulation Pulsar 3
AMO Tech – Primary-Secondary – Tech 3
AMO Tech – Probe Tech 7
AMO Tech – Pulser Tech 2
AMO Tech – Surface Gear 3
AMO Tech _ AT Curve Final Assembly 1
Application Eng Technical Lead Support 1
Application Engineer – In House (Chesapeake Energy) 1
ARMO Tech – Ballistic Master 1 – Wireline 1
ARMO Tech – CWI 4
ARMO Tech – Drill Bits Repair Shop 9
Assemblers – Stators – 1st shift 4
Assemblers – Stators – 2nd shift 3
Assemblers – Stators – 3rd shift 5
Assistant Supervisor – Stators – 2nd shift 1
Billing & Collections Analyst – CWI 1
Billing & Collections Analyst – DS – Fulltime – OKC 1
Billing & Collections Analyst – DS – Partime – OKC 1
Buyer – AMO 2
Buying & Procurement Specialist 2
Capital Projects & Maintenance Manager 1
Chief Consulting Engr-Prod Definition 1
CNC Process Technician 1
CNC Programmer 1
Customer Engineer/Lead Engineer – CWI 1
Customer Service Rep – Drill Bits Repair Shop 1
Department Admin – Wireline 1
Engineer- Reliability_Service Delivery Reliability 2
Engineering Manager – Design Engineering 1
Engineering Manager – Drafting 1
Factory Automation Specialist – 2nd shift 1
Field Engineer – Drill Bits 2
Field Operator PDP – Wireline 12
Field Service Delivery Coordinator – CWI 1
Field Specialist General – DRS 1
Field Specialist III – DRS 3
Field Specialist IV – DRS 2
Field Specialist – Liners – CWI 1
Field Specialist – Remediation and Stimulation 3
Field Specialist PDP – Wireline 5
Field Support Admin – Dept Admin – CWI 1
Field Supervisor I – DRS 5
Final Assembly Tech – Conventional 3
Firmware Engineer – Vector 2
General Operations Support Specialist 1
Gun Loader – Wireline 1
Hydraulic Engineer – System 1
Industrial Engineer 1
Lab Technician 2
Lead Engineer – Reliability 1
Lead Engineer-Geoservices 1
Lead Finance Specialist – Cash Flow Plan & Analysis 1
Lead Materls Plan & Execution Specialist 1
Lead Quality Assurance Engineer 2
Lead Sales Specialist 1
Lean Leader – MCOE 1
Logistics Specialist III 2
Machinist – Machining 5
Machinist – Rotors 3
Machinist Master – OKC 1
Maintenance Technician – MCOE 3
Materials Coordinator – Drill Bits 1
Mechanical Design Engineer – Pump 2
Mechanical Designer/Drafter – Hpump 1
Motor Tech – General 2
Motor Tech – Machine Shop 1
Motor Tech – Power 1
Motor Tech – Rotor Inspection 1
Motor Tech – Section 8 2
Motor Tech – Stator Inspector 2
Operations Application Engineer – Equipment Rental, Tech Direct 2
Operations Specialist – Fishing Services 1
Process Engineer 1
Process Engineering Manager 1
Production Supervisors – Rotors & Machining 1
Production Supervisors – Stators 2
Quality Assurance Specialist 1
RDD Technician Mechanical – OKC 2
Regional Technical Manager 1
Regulatory Compliance Engineer 1
Reliability Specialist 1
Remote Operations Specialist – OKC 19
Reservoir Navigation Engineer 2
Reservoir Navigation Engineers 6
Sales Specialist – Tech Direct – Central 2
Senior Sales Account Manager – DCF 1
Senior Sales Manager 1
Service Delivery Coordinator – CWI
2
Service Delivery Coordinator – PDP
1
Sr Materials Plan & Execution Staff MGR
1
Sr Operations Support Specialist – Central Region
1
Sr Service Delivery Coordinator
1
Strategic Account Manager
1
Technical Field Reps – Drill Bits
2
Technical Marketing Representative
2
Technical Support Manager – Drill Bits
1
Technical Support Specialist – Well Planner
1
Grand Total 234
It is not the first time that Oklahoma City lost some Baker Hughes employees. After Baker Hughes merged with GE in 2017, a year later, the company announced some employees would lose their jobs and others were to be transferred to facilities in Claremore.
In 2018, Baker Hughes was the largest employer in Claremore.
At the time, Baker Hughes closed its production operations at a south Oklahoma City artificial lift systems facility. In 2019, GE sold its shares and was no longer a majority owner of Baker Hughes.
In April 2019, Baker Hughes opened a new manufacturing and technology center in Oklahoma and called it the Motor Center of Excellence. The center was dedicated to advancing the performance,quality and reliability of downhole drilling motors.
The company, at the time, boasted of incorporating cutting-edge robotics, automation and process control to create a step change in drilling motor precision and quality, delivering better downhole motor performance and durability.
In addition to manufacturing, the 128,000-ft facility, co-located on BHGE’s Oklahoma City Supercenter campus, encompasses engineering, repair and maintenance, and an elastomer and materials laboratory.
The opening of the Motor COE follows the introduction of the company’s next-generation Navi-Drill DuraMax high-performance motors.
