Schlumberger proposal to cut 220 jobs and shut Newtownabbey site

By Simon Hunter

It's been announced 220 jobs here could be lost as global company Schlumberger considers closing its Newtownabbey site.

In a statement the firm said: "Due to the current prolonged downturn in the Oil and Gas industry, Schlumberger’s manufacturing plants globally are underutilized and the company is considering a proposal to cease manufacturing, assembly and test activities in its Belfast plant during 2018. 

"We completely understand the impact of this announcement on our employees and the local community. This is only a proposal at this stage and we will be conducting consultation with the union and our employee representatives to make every effort to try and mitigate as much as possible the impact on our employees.

"The oil and gas industry is going through the most severe downturn of the past 30 years with operators significantly reducing their investment.  This is severely impacting technology services companies like Schlumberger. Between 2014 and 2016, Schlumberger’s revenue was reduced by nearly half and unfortunately, we do not see yet any sustainable recovery. This scenario means, that to adapt to the new realities of the market, we need to restructure our production footprint."

Unite Regional Industrial Officer, Susan Fitzgerald, said:

“This is devastating news for the more than 220 workers employed at the site who now face losing their jobs as a result of this decision made by Schlumberger’s global corporate management. The company is a key employer in the Newtownabbey area which will suffer the impact from the loss of jobs in this high value-added company. Today’s announcement is also another hammer blow for Northern Ireland’s manufacturing sector.

“Unite will be seeking urgent meetings with Schlumberger to demand answers as to how they can justify a decision to close their site in Northern Ireland when the crunch affecting the oil and gas sector is a global one and affects all locations equally. We are aware that they have transferred much activity formerly conducted onsite at Newtownabbey to other, low-cost locations, including China.

“We are concerned that the company’s global corporate management are attempting to use the downturn in the oil and gas sector as cover to further outsource jobs to low cost alternative locations. If so we will be rejecting their logic.

“Notwithstanding those fears, Unite will be engaging with management to seek answers to our questions on the rationale for the closure. Our objective remains to avoid closure and to save the maximum number of jobs possible”, Ms Fitzgerald finished.