Halliburton to close Indiana County office

Oilfield services giant Halliburton is closing its Indiana County office as gas drilling customers, pressured by low prices, focus more of their activity in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania and in eastern Ohio.

The Houston company on Tuesday notified the 430 workers in the Homer City office that it would close by the end of the year and move operations there to an office in Zanesville, Ohio.

The move will result in the loss of 90 jobs. The rest of the workers will get offers to move to Zanesville or other company locations, spokeswoman Susie McMichael said.

“Halliburton continues to make adjustments to its workforce based on current business conditions,” she said. “We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment.”

The company in February said it would shed as many as 6,000 of its 80,000 employees as shale drillers nationwide slowed oil and gas exploration because of crashes in prices. McMichael said closing the Homer City office, which opened in 1970, is not part of that round of cuts.

Natural gas prices remain 40 percent lower than a year ago, and the number of gas rigs operating in shale plays hit its lowest point in decades. Marcellus shale companies that hire Halliburton and other contractors cut their capital budgets this year by up to 40 percent.

The drilling that remains has clustered in areas with high gas reserves in the Marcellus and deeper Utica shales beneath Washington and Greene counties, the West Virginia panhandle and across the Ohio River in Ohio. Halliburton cited this shift in the announcement of its office move.

The company, which began working in Pennsylvania in the 1950s, is keeping its Northeast headquarters in Cecil and other offices in Montgomery, Muncy and Carmichaels.

David Conti is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-388-5802 or dconti@tribweb.com.