Dhaka: US oil giant Chevron is going to cut between 6000 and 7000 jobs and continue with asset sales as the company retrenches amid sharply lower oil prices, reports Sky News.

The layoffs equate to about 10 per cent of its workforce, and come after the company already announced in July cuts of 1500 jobs.

Chevron also said it would pursue further asset sales, expecting to raise $US5-10 billion through 2017 after bringing in $US11 billion from sales over the past two years.

The company is slicing capital expenditures next year by 25 per cent to $US28 billion at most.

‘We expect further reductions in spending for 2017 and 2018, to the $US20 billion to $US24 billion range, depending on business conditions at the time,’ chairman and chief executive John Watson said in a statement on Friday.

‘With the lower investment, we anticipate reducing our employee workforce by 6-7,000.’

The US oil major reported a 63.6 per cent fall in earnings to $US2.04 billion in the quarter to September 30 compared to a year ago.

Upstream earnings — the exploration and production part of the business — barely cleared a profit, with just $US59 million, against $US4.65 billion a year ago.

Holding up profits were downstream operations, which earned $US2.21 billion.