Schlumberger says another round of layoffs coming

Houston’s vast oil field services industry took another blow Monday with word that Schlumberger is preparing for its second round of layoffs since January.

The world’s largest oil field services company, which in January announced plans to cut 6 percent of its work force, now expects “a further reduction of a similar amount” in coming months, Chief Executive Andrew Gould said at the 2009 Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans.

While the first round of cuts — eliminating about 5,000 of the firm’s 84,000 global employees — should be largely completed by the end of March, Gould gave no specific timetable for the next phase of layoffs. A company spokesman did not yet know how the company’s Houston operations would be affected.