The US oil-services group Halliburton (www.halliburton.com) is to make up to 8% of its global workforce redundant as a result of the decline in oil prices, which has led to reduced investment in the petroleum industry.

Leading oil companies have cut their planned spending for 2015 by billions of dollars in response to a decline of about 50% in oil prices since June.

The Houston-based company, which serves Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron as well as smaller oil companies, said the job cuts will occur in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia, but not in the Americas. They will affect between 5,200 and 6,400 workers.

Halliburton spokesman Chevalier Mayes said: “We value every employee. Unfortunately, we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment. The impact will be across all areas of our operations.”

The job cuts follow similarly sized redundancy plans announced by Schlumberger, Weatherford International and other oil-services companies in recent weeks.