Jan. 29--Amid all the noise of big numbers in its quarterly and year-end results, ConocoPhillips had one underlying message that its peers are likely to echo in the coming days: 2009 will be a rough ride for the oil and gas industry.

"We came to the conclusion we would experience a serious multiyear recession" stretching into 2010, James Mulva, the Houston-based company's chairman and chief executive, told analysts Wednesday. "We are preparing for a long and difficult business environment."

For ConocoPhillips, those preparations include reducing capital spending, cutting about 1,350 jobs worldwide and cleaning $34 billion from its financial closets to bring the value of its assets in line with lower oil and natural gas prices and battered equity markets amid the worst recession in decades.

Beyond that, ConocoPhillips showed about what its peers are expected to reveal: Triple-digit oil prices through most of 2008 pushed annual profits past 2007 levels. But the plunge in the last three months of the year cut ConocoPhillips' quarterly profit by more than half. The same pattern likely will show up in financial reports to come.

"The outlook for the majors over the next few months will be rocky to say the least," Bernstein Research analyst Neil McMahon said in a report to investors.

However, ConocoPhillips noted that its production rose in the quarter to 1.87 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 1.84 million in the year-ago quarter. Mulva said the company could replace its reserves over the next five years with its current asset portfolio.

The bad news continued early today when Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, said it swung to a net loss of $2.81 billion in the fourth quarter, as the declining price of oil reduced the value of its inventory.

The company said fourth quarter sales fell 24 percent to $81.1 billion.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. are scheduled to announce results Friday, followed by BP and Marathon Oil Corp. on Tuesday.

Chad Deaton, chairman of oil field services firm Baker Hughes, also weighed in on the industry's pessimism Wednesday as his company released year-end results. Baker Hughes is among the top go-to services companies for oil and gas producers.

Baker Hughes earned $432 million, $1.41 per share, up from $401 million, $1.26 per share, in the year-ago quarter. For the year, the company earned $1.6 billion, or $5.30 per share, up from $1.5 billion, $4.73 per share, in 2007.

But when producers shrink budgets, the companies they hire must pull back as well.