Range Resources Corp. on Wednesday confirmed that it has laid off another 55 employees in response to the commodities downturn, announcing job cuts that primarily affect the workforce in Southwest Pennsylvania, where its core operations in the Marcellus Shale are located.

The company did not provide details about the positions eliminated, but officials said it was “not a decision that we take lightly.” Since oil prices collapsed in mid-2014, Range has cut 30% of its workforce. The latest round of job cuts leaves the company with about 700 employees.

“Low commodity prices have created a harsh reality that everyone in our industry is facing,” said COO Ray Walker. “For Range, that has included difficult decisions, reflected by adjustments in our operations, reductions in capital spending, office closures, asset sales and staff reductions, including those most recently announced.”

The layoffs include 31 positions eliminated at the Marcellus headquarters in Cecil Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Those cuts also affected the field office in nearby Chartiers Township. Two positions also were eliminated in Northeast Pennsylvania, another two in Oklahoma and 20 in Forth Worth, TX.

A year ago, Range closed its Oklahoma City division office and cut 8% of its workforce (see Shale Daily, Feb. 25, 2015). In December, the company closed on the sale of its Nora Field coalbed methane assets in Virginia for $865 million, which also reportedly led to job losses (see Shale Daily, Dec. 31, 2015) . And in the last year, the company has eliminated 41 other jobs in Northwest Pennsylvania.

The job cuts come at a time of broad oil and gas industry retrenchment. Tens of thousands of industry job cuts have been announced globally since late 2014, mostly impacting Texas, but thousands also have lost jobs in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia (see Shale Daily, Jan. 12; June 19, 2015).

More recently, Royal Dutch Shell plc and Chief Oil & Gas LLC separately closed their Appalachian headquarters (see Shale Daily, Dec. 2, 2015; Sept. 3, 2015). Range said it did not plan to close any offices in Pennsylvania with the latest job cuts.