General Electric says revenue in its industrial segment increased 6% to $32 billion in the fourth quarter. Photo: Bloomberg News General Electric Co. ’s oil and gas business managed to blunt the hit from plunging prices of crude but the company is braced for deepening trouble in the year ahead. In the final three months of 2014, orders fell 10% in GE’s oil and gas business, including a 72% decline in requests for such drilling equipment as blowout preventers. The company said it hasn’t yet had to negotiate lower prices for its backlog of orders. But customers are starting to call, as they look to curtail projects, lay off workers and trim costs. “That’s to come in 2015,” Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bornstein said. For the past decade, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt has built up a sizable oil and gas operation, which accounted for about 17% of […]