The freefall in crude oil prices has not only hit oil companies, its impact is now being felt by the college graduates in India too. The world’s largest oil-field-services company Schlumberger has revoked all the offers it recently made to the IIT graduates. The company had earlier said that it wanted to cut and withdraw some internship and graduate job opportunities to offset the losses incurred due to low demand. However, the company also said that it is taking such steps due to adverse business conditions and as soon as the conditions improve, they will be the first to reach out to the students who have been filtered through the recruitment process.
Where the global companies like Schlumberger are revoking the offers they have made, Indian companies, TCS and Infosys, have recently announced that they will honour all the offers made to the freshers. Before Schlumberger, a US-based research and advisory firm, Gartner Inc also revoked the offers it made to the IIT grads. Hiring more people is just not fair for our current employees as we do the business restructuring, Gautam Reddy, MD, India and Bangladesh at Schlumberger, told The Indian Express. We have to take care of them first and it is as simple as this, he added.
Announcing the first quarter results of 2020, the CEO had said that the company expects its customer spend to fall by 40 per cent and globally by 15 per cent, which is unprecedented. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has led to a worldwide lockdown, depleting demand for oil. Low demand along with a glut in supply has kept the oil prices on a continuous fall. On Monday, US oil prices turned negative for the first time — crashing from $18 a barrel to -$38.