Williams cut another 110 Tulsa employees Wednesday, including 60 from energy marketing and trading and 50 from corporate operations. So far, about 300 Williams marketing and trading employees have lost their jobs this year leaving about 500-550 today. Another 70 from the company’s London office are likely to suffer a similar fate early next month.

Williams is down to about 12,000 employees from more than 12,400 at the beginning of the year, said spokeswoman Paula Hall-Collins, noting that a staff number is hard to pinpoint these days because it’s a rapidly moving target.

This is the third staff reduction so far this year, other than the cuts related to asset sales, she noted. On Aug. 7, about 90 Williams employees lost their jobs, and on Aug. 22 another 100 were given pink slips. Many more are certain to follow.

Williams is in the process of unloading $5 billion in assets and still has eight major operations left to sell, including a 40% portion of its energy trading book, its Memphis and Alaska refineries, Williams Gas Pipeline Central, midstream assets in Western Canada, its soda ash facilities, bio energy assets, its travel centers and its olefins plants (see Daily GPI, Aug. 22).

“There’s no question that Williams is undergoing the most dynamic restructuring in its history,” CEO Steve Malcolm said in a conference call last week. “Progress has been made but clearly there is much more left to be done.” Malcolm promised Williams will be a much smaller, more focused company but will retain a large presence in the energy business.

In July, Williams reported a second-quarter loss of $349.1 million, or 68 cents a share, compared with net income of $339.5 million, or 69 cents, a year earlier. It had a loss of $498 million from trading and selling natural gas and electricity. Malcolm said the company expects recurring segment profit of $630 million to $660 million from its interstate natural gas pipeline business and $780 million to $850 million from its energy services segment for full-year 2002. He didn’t forecast results for energy marketing and trading.

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