Liberty reduces workforce, wages, expenditures

DENVER — Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. (NYSE: LBRT) has reduced its workforce for the first time in the hydraulic fracturing company’s history.

According to a WARN notice filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Friday, the Denver-based company laid off 183 employees as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

“As you can imagine, we are distraught over the news we shared yesterday [April 2]. These are unprecedented times, especially for our industry,” Audrey Barrios, marketing communications manager for Liberty, wrote to BizWest in an email.

Barrios added that Liberty reduced its staffed fleet count by roughly 50%. Exact numbers on how the 183 layoffs impact the overall headcount were not disclosed.

In other cost-cutting measures, company executives agreed to a base salary reduction of 30%, which is greater than the previously announced 20%..

Liberty will cut 2020 total capital expenditures between $70 million and $90 million, reducing about 50% of its original budget.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the world’s largest oil demand destruction that will reset oil and gas development activity levels over the next year or more. We have never before reduced our workforce, always charting a different path,” Liberty CEO Chris Wright wrote in a news release. “We deeply regret that today’s circumstances necessitate that we make significant cuts to our workforce and restructure the compensation for those remaining.”

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