OFS ENERGY FUND
CUTS 150 OIL AND GAS SERVICES JOBS. THE EXPENSE REDUCTION PHASE IS ON ITS WAY
January 13, 2015
Houston based investment firm OFS Energy Fund laid off
150 workers from various service companies Monday as it tries to cut costs amid
sinking oil prices.
The lay offs hit workers in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma
and other states, Fuel Fix said.
OFS currently holds nine oil and gas services companies
in its three fund portfolios that operate in Texas, Colorado, Mexico, Colombia,
North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
“We want to retain our good people but you have to deal
with these circumstances, and it’s going to call for expense control,” OFS
managing partner Bruce Ross said.
Ross said some of the firm’s portfolio companies that
are “closer to the drilling rig” have already cut staff by upwards of 25
percent.
The firm said it may have to institute further headcount
reductions, trim salaries, cut bonuses and reduce perdiem reimbursements to
control expenses as upstreams curb spending.
Weak oil prices have also forced the company to revise its
2015 budgets as it tries to lower expenses.
“We’ve got to lower our labor costs. We just have to.
We’re not in the business of losing money,” Ross told Fuel Fix.
Low oil prices forced Houston-based services giant
Halliburton to lay off 1,000 workers outside of the United States in December
and pushed multiple Norwegian service players to cut staff.