Husky layoffs confirmed as Calgary company continues cost-cutting

Calgary-based Husky Energy says layoffs were announcedtodayto ensure the company's resilience during low oil prices.

The company didnot provideany specific numbers,but says the staff reductions were across its operations.

"These are difficult decisions and we will continue to take the steps necessary to ensure the company's resilience through this cycle and beyond," said company spokespersonMel Duvall in anemail.

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Staff tell CBC News layoffs include full-time staff and contractors.

Late last year, Husky said it was looking to sell some of its conventional oil and natural gas assets in Western Canada.

That includes producing wells from northeastern B.C. to southeastern Saskatchewan, as well as pipelines and storage tanks in the Lloydminster area, but no oilsands or heavy oil assets.

Social media postings suggest that many of the positions cut were related to those assets on the block.

Husky also announced it had cut1,400 positions last October. The companyis not the first to announce morejob cuts.

SuncorCEO Steve Williams says the companyoriginally had a goal of chopping 1,000 employees in 2015 both full time employees and contract workers butthey"significantly overachieved that goal, taking just over 1,900 people out," although250 employeeswere transferred to growth projects.

Cenovus alsocut its workforce faster than expected.The cuts comeafter monthsofdropping prices, withoil closingat $27.94 US a barrel on Tuesday.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producersestimatesthat 35,000oilpatchjobs werecut in 2015, and more are expected this year.

Alberta's jobless ratesurpassed the national unemployment rate for the first time in almost three decades in January. Statistics Canada said Alberta's unemployment rate hit 7.4 per cent in January, the highest since February 1996.

Samir Kayande, head of energy research at ITG Investment Research, said he's expecting spending to be "bare bones" this year, much like in 2015.

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He told CBC Newsthecompanies that are the most successful in the long run are the ones with the lowest costs, but the big challenge is finding a way tobe competitive with American light tide oil again.