The oil and natural gas industry shed another 2,500 jobs over the past 10 days, new figures from the Texas Workforce Commission show.

Blaming record low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic hurting demand for their products and services, 13 companies laid off 2,525 people. The service sector, which includes drilling rig operators, hydraulic fracturing crews and manufacturing, took the hardest hit.

Houston-based NexTier Oilfield Services reported the highest number of layoffs. It cut 1,041 employees working at its headquarters, another Houston office and field offices in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale.

Midland oil-field service company ProPetro Service announced more job cuts in the Permian Basin where losses now total 584 layoffs. Houston oil-field service company Baker Hughes cut 184 jobs after merging operations at two locations in Houston.

Frac sand companies with operations in the Permian Basin took the next biggest hit, with U.S. Silica laying off 105 people in Midland. Fort Worth-based Black Mountain Sand decided to mothball a plant in Kermit where 87 people were laid off. Ohio-based Covia laid off 82 people at a frac sand mine and plan in Kermit.

The offshore industry also took a hit with Diamond Offshore cutting 102 jobs at its Houston headquarters and Enterprise Offshore Drilling eliminating 75 jobs after on its customers halted operations in Gulf of Mexico.

Fuel distributors also are cutting workers, though the sector had been immune so far during the downturn. The Midland office of tanker truck hauler Sun Coast Resources reported laying off 70 people from its Midland truck yard while the fuel distribution arm of Sunoco cut 55 jobs from its Odessa truck yard.

Source: Houston Chronicle