I remember back in the March layoffs when our Canadian president K. Luerrs said "we will not have any more layoffs after this time, we have reduced the workforce and are now more efficient than ever and we won't be seeing any staff reductions anytime soon".... Well that was when oil price was 45 dollars. Fast forward 6 month into Oct. 2015, we see ourselves in a similar situation where they laid off just as many people. Guess what! Oil price is still at 45 dollars, and has been between those time periods. What changed?? I guess at some point, upper accounting management forgot to carry the 1 and realized oh shit! We need to slash more worker bees to balance our budget? That doesn't make any sense. Additionally, our dividends have been increasing every quarter throughout this oil downturn... what kind of leadership is this? I'm almost tempted to say management has no clue what they're doing, and they are far from "transparent". For those of you who didn't get the ax, take their townhall speeches with a grain of salt, and be on alert because you might be next. GL to all! Disclaimer: I got the ax in Oct.
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Just wait until the fed raises interest rates. Let's see how they'll prop up their dividends on sub-par earnings and tighter credit then.
He never said that, future layoff potential was always out in the open
The cash in the bank for ConocoPhillips is the result of tapping into the credit facilities to have cash enough on hand to pay the dividend. Do not be impressed by the amount of cash in the bank for ConocoPhillips. The banks are in the process of renegotiating credit facilities for all of the players in the oil and gas industry.
@176278 I'll tell you who will buy, it's the companies who think long term and aren't over leveraged on their balance sheets like COP is. They will pick off these assets at the drop of a hat during this fire sale and they will profit in the long run. COP has a debt to CF of 4.5 (5 billion cash, 23 billion debt) which is a huge ratio by any standard. One would think when the market is telling you to deleverage, you would stop borrowing credit to pay dividends. Blah blah company culture, blah blah ever increasing dividends. The worst thing you can do is stick your head in the sand and side with a dying company tradition than to adapt to volatile market conditions.
-OP
Year end staff reductions were clear from the start of the year. That was directly from Ryan Lance and his town halls
Curious if the lack of asset sales is due to the lack of buyers. The "least cost producer" ConocoPhillips cannot make a profit on the assets so why would any other company want to purchase the assets?
But there have been no public announcements of asset sales, so if that cash doesn't flow and the dividend continues to....more worker level staff will be shown the door. Except for the 2 Pres, 1 CEO and 13 VPs in OzLand. Apparently they and and Corporate staff are untouchable.
As stated time and time again in the analyst presentations, ConocoPhillips does not have a business plan for oil below $60 per barrel. ConocoPhillips does not have a plan to be cash flow positive for oil below $70 per barrel. Asset sales and tapping into the credit facility will continue in the immediate future until oil prices increase to $70 per barrel or until merger or acquisition activity. The issue is not transparency with the future for the company but no future for the company @ $45 barrel oil. The math does not work.
Thanks you have spoken the truth.
You are exactly right