In late March, Frank’s International confirmed that it would lay off 400 to 600 workers due to falling oil prices and declining rig counts, and this week the oilfield services company disclosed that 150 of those jobs are local.
Frank's joins a long list of oil-related entities slashing their workforces.
The area layoffs have started, as The Advocate reported that off-duty Lafayette Parish sheriff's deputies provided security at the company's main Lafayette facility on Verot School Road at U.S. Hwy. 90 Tuesday.
“Frank’s International remains focused on both cost savings opportunities, as well as process and operational improvements which are in line with our strategic growth plan during the challenging times we are experiencing as an industry,” company spokesman Josh Grodin writes in an emailed response. “Today we moved forward with the workforce reductions that were announced in March to our Lafayette and supporting area locations, directly impacting approximately 150 employees.”
Grodin continues, “While workforce reductions are difficult, we are committed to making necessary changes to ensure that Frank’s International remains strong and is well-positioned for the eventual recovery of commodity prices.”
Frank’s, founded in Lafayette in 1938, is now headquartered in Houston and employs more than 4,500 workers worldwide.
Frank’s is among the largest global providers of highly engineered tubular services to the oil and gas industry, offering its services to exploration and production companies working offshore and onshore. The company’s niche is complex and technically demanding wells.
That work is closely tied to oil prices, which have lost half their value since mid-2014 but have been slowly climbing back, trading in the $60 range for the past few weeks.
In mid-March Frank’s announced the purchase of Lafayette-based Timco, a competitor, in a transaction valued at $95 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.