NewChina Oilfield Services looks at more cost cuts and greater overseas revenue given crashing oil prices

China Oilfield Services (Cosl), the nation’s dominant offshore oil and gas drilling services provider, will continue to cut costs after slashing them by 2 billion yuan last year as its customers, reeling from losses due to depressed oil prices, have unveiled more project spending cuts to survive the worst industry downturn since 2009.

The sister firm of state-backed oil and gas producer CNOOC also aims to boost overseas sales to offset lower domestic business volume by developing new markets, said chief executive Li Yong.

“While overseas business is challenging, we have cut costs by streamlining the structure of our overseas units and set up an overseas sales team with young and high-calibre talent,” he told a press briefing on Tuesday.

“Since offshore China is a well developed market for us, we will boost overseas sales which I believe will take up a greater portion of our total sales this year.”

Cosl wants overseas revenue to account for over 30 per cent of its total this year, up from 25 per cent in 2010.

The firm has a 90 per cent share of the drilling and seismic data surveying market in offshore China, and 55 to 60 per cent of the oil and gas well services and marine logistics support markets.

The firm has cut 230, or a quarter of its staff, in Norway last year and trimmed others in Indonesia, Mexico and over 200 short-term contract staff in China. It had 16,000 staff at the end of 2014.