Halliburton shuts Texas sites, lays off 240 Oklahoma workers

HOUSTON (AP) — Oilfield services giant Halliburton has closed down two sites in Texas and laid off 240 employees in Oklahoma in response to reduced customer activity due to plummeting oil prices.

Halliburton closed its Elmendorf facility and is relocating operations to field camps in southern Texas. The Houston-based company is also closing a Kilgore center and moving operations to Bossier City, Louisiana.

The number of people laid off at the Elmendorf location was not immediately available. But a Texas Workforce Commission notice says 233 workers have been laid off at the Kilgore facility.

The closures and layoffs are due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has cut global demand for oil and gas marking a historic industry downturn.

“We recognize that this decision will be a hardship for impacted employees, but unfortunately, this was a necessary decision to right size our organization to current market conditions,” Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Halliburton laid off 240 employees from a service center in Duncan, Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development. The company laid off 350 personnel at the same facility earlier this month.