Layoffs Watch '08: Getting Fired From BP Apparently Not So Bad

Posted by guest, Apr 30, 2008 6:05PM

nah, just succinct. there's a difference, you know.

Posted by JorgeCad, Apr 30, 2008 6:13PM

BP, ExxonMobil, Total etc.. They are all the same. They are just riding the bubble and seem to ignore it will implode. Sorry hedgies and oil traders, you are riding a very dangerous wave.

Loved the Rockefeller family's comments about good old-fashioned oil. In short, we all know its eventually dying. Just wait until the general population react to obscene price-gouging. In other words, my opinion does not matter, but the consumer's opinion does. Do not under estimate market shifts.

Pure oil companies will become like purveyors of buggy whips, in the last century, they will just disappear.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080430.wexxon0430/BNStory/energy/home

Posted by guest, Apr 30, 2008 8:22PM

Heard they were being paid in gas cards though.

-NSD

Posted by guest, Apr 30, 2008 8:48PM

Appaently lots of cuts at ML, DB has zero pulse on layoffs.

http://njrereport.com/index.php/2008/04/30/first-quarter-gdp-fomc-on-tap/#comments

comment #220

Posted by guest, Apr 30, 2008 10:11PM

Glad they didn't offer them refinery jobs. Not real safe there in the past.

Posted by guest, May 01, 2008 12:02AM

@8:48- why don't you send them a tip then, big shot? how do you think they get their info? by people passing it on. tool.

Posted by guest, May 01, 2008 9:45AM

http://njrereport.com/index.php/2008/05/01/access-to-mass-transit-is-the-next-granite/#comments

Posted by guest, May 01, 2008 6:57PM

As a natural gas trader at BP, I can tell you that the severence package is so good that we were all hoping for one in the weeks leading up to the cut. In fact, the atmosphere and morale are so bad at BP, and the workload will be so much more after the cuts, that there are already people who are looking to leave in the next few months. The funny thing is that management laid off all the East natural gas traders who were making money, and kept all the people who were losing money. Tony Hayward might want to fire the monkeys running his Houston trading group.

Posted by guest, May 01, 2008 7:59PM

Thanks for posting on the BP lay-offs. I'm not clear how the energy traders fit into the larger BP picture. Does the energy trading occur in New York, Houston, and London? How big is the BP energy trading operation? Is the generous severance package due to a lot of laid-off employees being located in Britain? I know that British employers do a lot to avoid running afoul of the strict anti-lay-offs law in Britain, and a large severance package may be used in a British tribunal to show employer goodwill. If so, glad some Americans are benefiting.

No offense to the energy traders, but BP has a pretty bad rep in America. There were 15 killed, 170 injured in Texas City at a BP refinery in 2004, for which BP paid a record fine to OSHA. A year later, two more workers were burned to death in Texas City. More recently in 2007, BP paid $9.5 million to the U.S. Treasury for violations of the EPA at five refinery sites in the U.S. Last summer, Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin tried to get BP to stop dumping ammonia waste in Lake Michigan, but weren't backed by the Bush Administration. So BP continued dumping, to the outrage of the city of Chicago.

I always thought that the haunting ads of the agricultural conglomerate in Michael Clayton were a nice lambasting of the obnoxious BP ad campaign.

Posted by guest, May 02, 2008 11:17AM

The main purpose of traders at BP is to hedge and sell BP's equity oil and gas. BP's main trading hubs are Houston and Calgary for US natural gas and Power, Chicago for US oil, and London and Singapore for Eastern oil and natural gas. No trading in NYC. I don't know about globally, but BP is the largest natural gas physical trader in the US. Most physical players besides Exxon believe in hedging their production and being active in the market. Regarding your question on severence, I don't think it is just because BP is British. Most major energy companies have decent severence packages. They don't have to give one, but do it in order to not scare away future employees.

You are absolutely right on BP's bad rep in the US. BP's focus on safety is in all the wrong places. They waste money forcing office employees to take driver's safety courses and having security personnel watch the garage for people using cell phones instead of using this money towards real safety with pipelines and refineries. They have taken away office toasters in order to prevent office fires while they are ignoring the safety of those in refineries who are in real danger. It is funny that you mentioned Michael Clayton. It reminded me of the BP ad campaign as well.