Two Houston oil services firms reveal job cuts

BJ Services Co., the oilfield- services provider that lost 52 percent of its market value last year, and Pride International Inc., the U.S. driller with rigs from India to Africa, have cut jobs as declining commodity prices force customers to reduce spending.

BJ Services has cut about 1,500 jobs, said Chief Executive Officer James Stewart today at the Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans. The company has also frozen salaries until economic conditions improve, Stewart said. Pride has eliminated 300 jobs in the past month, CEO Louis Raspino said in an interview at the conference.