Key Energy: Key Energy Services posts additional layoffs

A local oil-field service company that shed dozens of local jobs last year has announced additional layoffs amid what has become a historically tough time for one of Kern's most important industries. Houston-based Key Energy Services sent a letter March 24 notifying local authorities it will lay off 14 people starting May 23 at its facilities at 330 Industrial Way in Taft. Positions to be cut include four rig operators, five relief operators, a crane operator and three supervisors. No one at the company could be reached for comment. The company operates in eight states. In Kern, where Key is also a presence in Bakersfield and Shafter, its offerings range from rig services and plugging and abandonment work to drilling of water wells. Last year Key announced 93 layoffs in California, all but 30 of them in McKittrick, with the rest in San Ardo and Ventura. Other layoffs reported in Kern County last year include 28 positions cut at Houston-based Schlumberger's operation along Snow Road and 75 jobs eliminated at Golden State Drilling on Fruitvale Avenue. Local oil producers have also reported layoffs numbering at least 160 in recent years. Drilling permits have been hard to get since the Newsom administration targeted the industry starting in mid-2019. Separately, the county of Kern's decade-long campaign to issue its own oil permits has been stymied by lawsuits filed by a local farming company and a coalition of conservation and environmental justice groups. Although the county recently floated changes to a massive environmental review at the heart of its permitting effort, expectations are that it will take more than a year before an appellate court can decide whether the revisions fully address a series of deficiencies judges identified in 2023. Taft Mayor Dave Noerr blamed the layoffs at Key Energy on what he called shortsighted policies by the Newsom administration. "This is the systematic, unraveling destruction of the necessary infrastructure to find and produce in-state oil and gas production, a very necessary component of modern quality of life," he said. Key held on as long as it could but was unable to survive on "business scraps that are available right now," Noerr said. Given the industry's leading role in property tax generation in Kern, Noerr added he is optimistic the county's environmental review will withstand legal challenges. But he said he hopes it doesn't take a year to be approved because of continuing damage to the industry.