Conoco SACRIFICES 3,000 Workers to Please Wall Street, Investors Yeet Shares -4%...

Just when you thought working in the oil patch couldn't possibly get any more soulless 

So it appears that ConocoPhillips just dropped the #OpentoWork guillotine on 25% of its global workforce, or roughly 3,000 people who were just told to kick rocks. CEO Ryan Lance delivered the news in a pre-recorded video message, (which is about as cold-blooded as it gets)… where tomorrow they’ll hold a town hall to “explain” how gutting a quarter of the company somehow makes drilling more efficient. Translation: executives needed a bigger sacrifice to show Wall Street they’re serious about cutting fat, so workers got thrown on the altar.

(Source: Giphy) 

Of course, to make the layoffs smell less awful… the bloodletting is wrapped in an internal codename called “Competitive Edge” (which sounds like a Peloton class but really means “everyones job is fair game”). But, but, but… why now? Well, Conoco didn’t suddenly wake up bloodthirsty. In fact, this all traces back to its $17 billion Marathon Oil acquisition last year. That deal gave Conoco scale, but it also saddled them with overlapping assets, bloated headcount, and debt that Wall Street expected them to “rationalize”... a.k.a, buy the crown jewels, torch the rest.

(Source: Reuters)

Which is why the goal here is to cut baggage, and liquidate assets like a hedge fund in heat. Case in point: Conoco has already sold $1.3 billion in the Anadarko Basin, $735 million worth of Gulf stakes has been pawned off, and a new divestiture target of $5 billion by 2026. Meaning, if it’s not shale or LNG, it’s on eBay. 

Meanwhile, capex and opex are trimmed to look “disciplined”. For instance, 2025 spending was cut to 12.3–$12.6 billion, operating costs shaved to $10.7–$10.9 billion. Management calls it efficiency, but what it really means is that AI dashboards are replacing field crews, rigs are running leaner, and the receipts are telling management they can do more with less. Sounds legit. Naturally, investors took the hint and yeeted shares -4% on the day. 

(Source: Giphy) 

With that said, Conoco’s dangling over $1B in Marathon “savings” as proof it’s not all theater, the company insists it isn’t about shrinking, it’s about “streamlining”. But honestly, $1B barely moves the needle when your net income is already sagging and crude futures are stuck in tariff hell. 

So yeah, “Competitive Edge” is the brand, but it feels a lot more like “Cutthroat Survival.” And in this cycle, survival isn’t about barrels… It's about convincing investors you can still print cash while bleeding people. For now though, we’ll see what the town hall meeting has for us, but until then… It looks like the negative sentiment will continue having its way with share prices the rest of the day. Until next time, friends…  

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.