'We routinely review our organization to align with our long-term strategy, operate safely and efficiently, and remain well-positioned for future opportunities'
ConocoPhillips is cutting an undisclosed number of jobs in Canada for the second year in a row, from a local workforce that made up about 8% of its 9,900 global employees at the end of 2025, its annual filing shows.
Employees and contractors in Calgary and at its Surmont and Montney operations learn today whether their positions are affected. The Houston-based producer confirmed the cuts a day earlier.
"We routinely review our organization to align with our long-term strategy, operate safely and efficiently, and remain well-positioned for future opportunities," Dennis Nuss, director of media relations at ConocoPhillips, said in a statement to CTV News.
How ConocoPhillips is notifying affected workers
An internal notice obtained by CTV News told Calgary staff to work from home Tuesday and await virtual notification. Workers at Surmont, the company's oil sands project in northeastern Alberta, and its Montney operations in northeastern British Columbia would be contacted by phone.
That is a shift from 2025, when a company memo reviewed by Reuters showed field workers would be told in person, as HRD Canada reported in its coverage of ConocoPhillips' November 2025 layoffs across Alberta and B.C.
The company has not explained the change and has withheld site-level figures before. During the 2025 round, Nuss told Reuters in an email: "We will not be sharing area-specific workforce numbers for current or impacted employees and contractors."
Do group termination rules apply in Alberta and B.C.?
Those figures matter because both provinces tie group termination duties to single-location headcounts. In Alberta, an employer terminating 50 or more employees at one location within four weeks must give the minister at least four weeks' written notice under the Employment Standards Code, the province says. CTV News said it had asked Alberta whether one was filed.
B.C.'s Employment Standards Act, which governs the Montney operations, applies the same 50-employee threshold over two months. It requires written notice to affected employees, the minister of labour and any certified union, starting at eight weeks for 50 to 100 employees, according to provincial guidelines.
Contractors add another layer. A contractor label offers little protection where the working relationship resembles employment, as HRD Canada noted in its analysis of 10 ways employers are mishandling terminations.
Without site-level numbers, it is unclear whether either threshold applies.
Canada's share of a global ConocoPhillips restructuring
The cuts are part of a wider program. In September 2025, ConocoPhillips said it would cut 20% to 25% of its global employees and contractors, mostly before the end of that year, Reuters reported. Two sources told Reuters the reorganization would finish by 2026. The agency has since linked the restructuring to the Marathon Oil acquisition.
The company's figures show the scale. It reported 11,800 employees at the end of 2024 and 9,900 at the end of 2025, a drop of about 16%, according to its 2025 performance metrics.
Others are trimming too. After Calgary-based Imperial Oil announced plans to cut 20% of its workforce by the end of 2027, Richard Masson, executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy, told CBC News at the time: "Costs are always being reduced in this business."
