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U.S. oil companies are cutting jobs by the thousands as they respond to falling crude prices, higher tariffs, and a wave consolidation in the industry.
President Donald Trump promised boom times for oil and gas when he took office in January. Instead, the industry has shed 4,000 positions through August, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The layoffs come as U.S. crude oil prices have fallen 13% this year due to OPEC+ members rapidly increasing supply to the global market. West Texas Intermediate was trading under $63 per barrel Tuesday, below the breakeven price that many shale oil producers in Texas need to drill new wells at a profit.
The three biggest U.S. oil companies Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have all announced job cuts in 2025 after making major acquisitions over the past two years as the industry consolidates.
Exxon is cutting 2,000 positions as it implements its restructuring plan, a spokesman said Tuesday. Chevron announced in February that it would cut up to 20% of its workforce through 2026. Conoco said earlier this month that it would cut up to 25% of its workforce.
The broader energy sector, meanwhile, has shed 9,000 positions through August of this year, about a 30% increase in layoffs compared with the same period in 2024, according to data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Hiring has ground to a near standstill this year with energy companies planning to fill around 1,000 openings, down about 90% from the more than 12,000 openings during the same period in 2024, according to the Challenger data.
Oil patch in distress
Shale oil executives have criticized Trump’s push for lower oil prices at the same their costs are increasing due to his steel tariffs, warning this would lead to job losses.
“The administration is pushing for $40 per barrel crude oil, and with tariffs on foreign tubular goods, [input] prices are up, and drilling is going to disappear,” one executive said in an anonymous response to a quarterly survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“The oil industry is once again going to lose valuable employees,” the executive said.
Another executive said the administration was aligned with the policy of OPEC+ at the expense of U.S. producers.
“Instead of supporting domestic production, they’ve effectively aligned with OPEC — using supply tactics to push prices below economic thresholds, kneecapping U.S. producers in the process,” the executive told the Dallas Fed.
The same executive said the oil majors are pushing out the “entrepreneurs who once defined the shale revolution” as the industry conslidates. Exxon recently acquired Pioneer Natural Resources for $60 billion, Chevron purchased Hess for $53 billion, and Conoco bought Marathon Oil for $17 billion.
“In their place, a handful of giants now dominate but at the cost of enormous job loss and the destruction of the innovative, risk-taking culture that made the U.S. shale industry great,” the executive said.
A White House spokesperson said Trump is “rolling back burdensome regulations that were killing the industry,” crediting the president’s policies with record production in June. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has argued that the administration is making drilling cheaper by cutting red tape.