National Oilwell Varco Norge (NOV) is proving to be the hardest hit of all oil service companies in Norway. Its parent company has now lost contracts worth nearly NOK 10 billion (USD 1.1 billion) tied to drilling ship projects in Brazil, after oil prices took a dive.
NOV already has had to lay off hundreds of workers in Norway. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported on Wednesday that it now has entered into cancellation agreements for seven drilling equipment projects tied to the contracts it had with Estaleiro Atlantico Sul SA and EAS International Inc in Brazil.
The cancellations will reduce the company’s orderbook by USD 1.1 billion, according to a press release issued by NOV’s head office in Houston, Texas. “It’s the headquarters in Houston that’s handling this case, so we don’t have anything more to report,” Dag Nordbø, communications director for NOV in Norway, told news bureau NTB.
NOV’s main office in Norway is located in Kristiansand, and now the southern coastal city may be hit by more job losses. NOV has suffered the biggest losses within Norway’s beleaguered oil sector since the price of oil fell from more than USD 100 a barrel last year to under USD 40 this year.
newsinenglish.no staff
