Two major U.S. oil producers, Occidental Petroleum and Apache Corporation, have started slashing jobs this week as they look to cut costs in the slowdown of the U.S. shale production growth. Occidental Petroleum began layoffs across the United States this week, the Houston Chronicle reports , as Oxy aims to further cut costs after it bought Anadarko Petroleum last year in one of the biggest oil industry deals in recent years. Oxy had already cut jobs in a voluntary exit program, but it has now moved to broad layoffs from Denver to the Permian, according to the Houston Chronicle. “While these (voluntary) programs have been successful and contributed significantly to our goals, we have determined that additional staff reductions are necessary,” Occidental’s chief executive officer Vicki Hollub said in an internal email to employees, as carried by Houston Chronicle. Occidental has declined to quantify the terminations. While Oxy made […]