By TARA PATEL

Technip will cut 6,000 jobs and reduce its fleet of oil-service ships to cope with project delays and cancellations following the slump in crude prices.

The worldwide job cuts and reduction in the fleet to 23 vessels from 36 will help the company reach a target of 830 million euros ($918 million) of savings, it said in a statement. Paris-based Technip will take a one-time charge of 650 million euros for the restructuring, mostly in the second quarter.

“The slowdown in the oil and gas industry is prolonged and harsh,” CEO Thierry Pilenko said in the statement Monday.

The measures will be a “major adjustment” in Technip’s cost base as customers are “relentless” in slashing their own expenses and the services industry faces overcapacity, he said. “We’re not just sitting and waiting for oil prices to go up.”

Technip supplies equipment and builds plants for oil and natural gas producers including Total, which are reducing spending after warning that some projects are no longer unsustainable after the slump in crude prices.

Bidding for contracts has led to “irrational behavior” by some companies, the oil-services company said. Talks on other orders have become protracted and led to projects being delayed or canceled. Pilenko said the outcome may lead to legal challenges in some cases.

About 700 million euros of the company’s savings will come in 2016 and the rest the following year, according to Technip.

“The sharp fall in oil prices has had a substantial impact on clients’ behavior, national and international oil companies alike,” the company said. “New projects continue to be deferred as clients assess their investment priorities in a durably changed oil price environment.”

During a conference call, Pilenko said an Algeria refinery project that was “well advanced” is now “finished at the client request” while Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has made “tough choices” to focus on pre-salt developments rather than downstream.

A large part of the restructuring is in onshore/offshore operations, which builds refineries and offshore installations like platforms, to address recent unsatisfactory performance, it said. The division’s profitability will improve in the second half with adjusted underlying operating income from recurring activities of 140 million euros to 160 million euros, Technip said.

Technip will be “slowing down dramatically” its onshore/offshore businesses in Brazil,’’ Pilenko said. Downstream projects in Latin America will “disappear” while they continue to be strong in North America.

The company affirmed it forecast for adjusted onshore/offshore revenue of 6 billion euros, and cut its expectations for adjusted operating income from recurring activities to 210 million euros to 230 million euros, from a previous range of 250 million euros to 290 million euros.

Adjusted operating income from recurring activities for subsea operations will be about 840 million euros and adjusted revenue will be from 5.2 billion euros to 5.5 billion euros.