Bloomberg reports that “oil and natural gas explorers in the Rocky Mountains plan to fire more workers and reduce already-shrunken drilling budgets amid expectations the energy slump will persist for at least another year.”  

“Energy producers in the seven U.S. states covered by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank are being squeezed by tightening financial conditions and are reducing drilling activity in response, according to a statement from the bank Friday.”  

“The oil industry worldwide has cut more than 200,000 jobs in the 16 months since crude markets began to collapse under the weight of a glut of supplies from U.S. shale fields and the Persian Gulf.”