By Liz Hampton
(Reuters) - More oilfield service companies dismissed workers this week after oil prices collapsed to near two-decade lows amid a price war among top producers and falling demand from the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Houston, Texas-based NCS Multistage Holdings (O:NCSM) is cutting about 80 employees, or 20% of its workforce, according to a filing. The company provides services for fracking shale oil wells.
Canadian firm STEP Energy Services (TO:STEP) also is shedding workers in Texas and Oklahoma oilfields due to the "drastic downturn in oil," the company said in a workforce filing.
The layoffs will impact 151 people at two Texas facilities and a handful of people in Oklahoma, it said.
Firms that provide oilfield services and equipment had barely recovered from the 2014-2016 downturn before oil last month crashed to about $20 a barrel. Many were already operating on thin margins, and now face customers pushing for price cuts.
French drilling pipe manufacturer Vallourec (PA:VLLP) this week said it was cutting 900 jobs, or one third of its North American workforce, after activity collapsed in the oil and gas industry.
The decision was "necessary in a quickly deteriorating environment," Chairman Edouard Guinotte said in a statement on Monday.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), the largest hydraulic fracturing operator in the United States, on Monday said it was "significantly reducing" its workforce, and its executives agreed to take a pay cut.