Turkmenistan: Oil Company Lays Off 300 Workers in Central Asian Country

An international oil company in Turkmenistan is laying off 300 workers, EurasiaNet has confirmed. Schlumberger, an oil services provider that operates in western Turkmenistan, is attributing the layoffs to changes in its economic outlook brought on by the global financial crisis.

The company is operating in Turkmenistan under a five year, $36 million contract signed in 2004 with state-owned Turkmenneft. The Turkmen layoffs are part of the company's plans to shed up to 5,000 of its 84,000 global workforce. Stephan Whittaker, Schlumberger's press spokesman told EurasiaNet on March 31 that the layoffs were caused by the fact "that today the oil and gas industry is having certain weaknesses."

Schlumbereger is the world's largest oil field services company and has been operating in Turkmenistan since 1998.

Separately, scandal-hit Dragon Oil, which recently sacked members of its management team for taking bribes from contractors, denied Turkmen media reports that it too had sent workers on its off-shore Caspian oil projects packing. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Spokesman Martin Jackson said the reports were "not correct" and that Dragon Oil is "on the contrary growing and recruiting."