The downturn in the oil industry hit home in Bartlesville Monday, when dozens of people lost their jobs at the ConocoPhillips facility there.
ConocoPhillips spokesman David Austin tells KRMG the layoffs were announced internally on August 31st of this year, and the announcement was made publicly September 1st.
Since that time, layoffs have happened around the company, including in Bartlesville.
Monday, though, appears to have seen the largest number of people let go at once at that facility.
The company had said it would lay off about ten percent of its workforce globally, and Austin says that what happened Monday in Bartlesville "is a continuation of that process."
"Our industry's undergoing a dramatic downturn, which has caused us to look at our future workforce needs, and as we've assessed the implications of lower prices on our business, we had to make this difficult decision to reduce our workforce, unfortunately," Austin told KRMG.
"Globally we announced about ten percent, we expect a similar impact in Bartlesville," he said.
According to Austin, the facility employed roughly 1,700 people, meaning about 170 jobs in all will be laid off.
Again, not all the layoffs occurred Monday, but there was a definite uptick in the activity.
"All impacted personnel will receive severance benefits as a reult of this process," he added.