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Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services firm, announced on Thursday it would slash 10,000 jobs from its current 95,000 workers as declining oil prices have forced customers to cancel oil production projects.

The move came as the Houston- and Paris-based company reported a loss of $1.02 billion for the last quarter of 2015, compared to a profit of $302 million in a similar period the previous year.

Oil prices, which have fallen by over 70 percent in the last 19 months, have caused the global energy industry to suspend over $100 billion worth of projects and cut more than 250,000 jobs in 2015. With this new job cuts, Schlumberger would have axed over 34,000 jobs or 26 percent of its original workforce since November 2014.

"The decrease in land activity was the sharpest seen since 1986," said Paal Kibsgaard, Schlumberger’s Chief Executive Officer, in an earnings statement seen by Bloomberg. “The massive over-capacity in the land services market offers no signs of pricing recovery in the short to medium term."

Schlumberger said it would re-launch a $10 billion share buyback programme after a current repurchase plant of the same amount ends. The company shares have fallen by over 44 percent since May 2014.

Revenues fell by over 40 percent in the last quarter of 2015 to $7.76 billion, the lowest in five years.

Kibsgaard said “negative market sentiments intensified in the fourth quarter,” with oil over-production “extending the bearish trend in global inventories.”

Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's Frontier Markets Analyst