Occidental Petroleum’s oil and gas drilling subsidiary laid off80 employees in Bakersfield, CA, on Wednesday, and will eliminateanother 130 jobs as part of a restructuring triggered by low crudeoil prices and its poor stock price performance. The subsidiary’swork force at its Bakersfield headquarters will be pared down to135 by eliminating 210 jobs and transferring another 50 employees.The company’s stock price plummeted last month to a new 52-week lowof 17 3/4 from a high of 30 3/4. It’s stock closed up 9/16 onWednesday following the announcement, but fell 1/8 Thursday to 221/8.

Amoco said it discovered another 750 Bcf and 25 million bbl ofpotentially recoverable gas and oil reserves off the east coast ofTrinidad, which is soon to be the home of a major LNG projectdesigned to serve the U.S. Northeast region. The Amoco wellidentified 870 feet of gross oil and gas pay in 11 differentproductive zones. Amoco said the 11 zones are the most it hasdiscovered in any of its exploration projects in Trinidad. Thediscovery is the 15th success out of 21 drilled over the last fiveyears. The combined results have brought the total resources todate to 13 Tcf of gas and 300 million bbl of oil.

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