KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — After recording a drop in its last quarter profits due to plunging world oil prices, state oil-and-gas giant Petronas announced today a massive restructuring exercise that will result in redundancies of under 1,000 jobs.
A separation scheme will be undertaken for the affected employees over the next six months.
“Exhaustive efforts are on-going to re-deploy affected employees. Petronas will further embark on a separation exercise for these employees as needed, which is expected to be completed over the next six months,” it said in a media statement on its website announcing a new leadership line-up.
Among the changes to the top executives were Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib, replacing Datuk Wee Yiaw Hin as the new executive vice-president and chief executive officer of upstream operations.
Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin maintained his position as Petronas president and CEO.
The changes in leadership positions will take effect from April 1.
The statement said the group-wide overhaul was made after a strategic review of its business model.
Petronas said it hopes to be more resilient in dealing with current and future challenges due to “tough external environments”.
Malaysia’s only Fortune 500-company yesterday announced cuts in capital and operating spending of RM50 billion ringgit over the next four year.
The slide in global crude oil prices over the past few months have been hurting Petronas’ profits.
Yesterday, Petronas announced its revenue for 2015 dropped nearly 25 per cent to RM248 billion.
