We all remember the hype that took over the news and Internet following the downsizing that was carried out at Schlumberger. Despite the profits and workforce dwindling, the oil company CEO went home with $18 million for his work in 2015.
Schlumberger is the world’s largest oil field service company and had to lay off 25,000 employees (an equivalent of 20% of its workforce). The profits for the CEO, Paal Kibsgaard, also went down 40% – owing to the prices for black gold continuing their downward slide that had begun about two years ago. The company operates in over 85 countries and was facing quite a situation.
The oversupply of oil managed to bring the $100 per barrel price from 2014 down to $33.01 and the cherry on top was the $232 million fine that company had to pay because of violation of sanctions against Iran and Sudan. It was fined by the Justice Department, just in case you’re wondering.
And yes, despite all these factors, Kibsgaard’s compensation has only dropped 1.1% from 2014. In numbers, it went from $18.5 million to $18.3 million. Kibsgaard is a Norwegian has been serving as the CEO since 2011. He was formerly working for Exxon Mobile. Last month, he mentioned another 10,000 job cuts apart from the ones in 2015 and said that he was ‘optimistic’ that layoffs were finally over.
The stock for Schlumberger that is listed on the NYSE and has a US HQ in Houston, saw a rise of 0.26% this Friday.