-National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) says it will cut 1,500 jobs from its Norwegian workforce, or a bit less than a third of its staff there, by the end of this year as low oil prices have led to reduced spending by oil companies and lower sales of new equipment; 900 permanent jobs and 600 contract workers will be cut
-Statoil, Norway’s dominant oil company, said yesterday that it would cut up to 1,500 permanent positions and 525 consultants from a total Norwegian workforce of more than 20K.
-NOV's Norwegian arm contributed ~4% of the company’s $21.4B in total revenue last year.
http://seekingalpha.com/news/2584365-national-oilwell-varco-to-cut-1500-norwegian-jobs
This is the news that a lot have been waiting for and the first actual announcement by NOV concerning layoffs. I have been told the labor laws are very different from the US so they cannot just cut people on a whim. Considering that they only contributed 4% to total revenue last year, you would think that this would have come a lot sooner.