ConocoPhillips cuts North Slope workforce after Marathon Oil merger

ConocoPhillips has cut 12.5% of its North Slope workforce after absorbing Marathon Oil, a change that reaches far beyond company payrolls. For families tied to Kuparuk, Alpine and the broader North Slope service network, fewer jobs mean less income, fewer purchases in local businesses, and less demand for the housing, catering and commuting arrangements that keep oilfield life moving.

The reduction lands in a region where a single operator’s staffing decisions can ripple through contractors, truckers, trades workers and village households that depend on industrial spending. When company headcount falls, charter flights carry fewer people, support contracts can shrink and the cash economy that runs on North Slope payrolls slows down. That matters in the North Slope Borough, where oil production helps underpin local government finances and industrial activity shapes the scale of services the borough can support.

The cuts also follow a broader restructuring inside ConocoPhillips. In September 2025, the company said it would reduce 20% to 25% of its global workforce after the Marathon Oil acquisition, and most of those layoffs were completed in 2025. ConocoPhillips has said no further North Slope layoffs are expected after the reductions already underway, but the Alaska cuts still amount to roughly half the companywide rate, or about 10% to 12.5% locally.

At the same time, 243 workers have petitioned for union representation, signaling that employees are looking for more leverage as oil prices weaken and corporate consolidation reshapes their jobs. The National Labor Relations Board case covers operations and maintenance employees at ConocoPhillips’s North Slope Alaska operation, including workers based at Kuparuk and Alpine. For workers who already face remote schedules, weather disruptions and long commutes, the petition suggests growing concern about scheduling, wages and job stability in a softer market.

ConocoPhillips remains the largest oil producer on the North Slope and holds about 490,000 acres of Alaska oil-and-gas leases, second only to Hilcorp in lease area. Its Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is estimated at about $8 billion and is expected to begin producing oil in 2029, even as the Alaska Department of Revenue has lowered its long-range revenue estimate for Willow to about $2.6 billion between 2029 and 2053. That revised outlook reflects weaker expected oil prices, higher production costs and a slightly different development plan that cuts expected production by 6%, a reminder that North Slope jobs, investment and public revenue are being squeezed from both sides at once.