KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (PETRONAS) rightsizing exercise is progressing with the next ‘big wave’ expected in March, followed by the next one in July, its president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik said.
Speaking at a press conference on PETRONAS' results briefing on Friday, Muhammad Taufik said the workforce size affected is unchanged at 5,000 people, or about 10% of its total workforce, with the entire exercise expected to conclude in August.
“It's coming in waves and phases. The next big wave is in March, and another one is in July. It should all conclude by August, where we have the complete new organisation design but the number and planning has already been factored,” Muhammad Taufik said.
“I want to take the time to emphasise this is a painful process for us,” he said. “But this is a process of rightsizing to ensure that we remove work that is not necessary.
“We were agile enough to conduct the work in this kind of environment as you just saw earlier; we took into account the needs to remain competitive and fast and agile. This was never targeted to have an end of numbers to cut,” he added.
Sources told The Edge that the next wave would see about 1,000 roles impacted.
The move comes on the heels of long-term structural headwinds impacting the oil and gas industry, from energy transition to geopolitics and technology changes that have increased volatility of hydrocarbon prices and eroded double-digit margins previously enjoyed by oil companies.
When announcing the plan this month last year, PETRONAS said it is mainly reducing the number of 'enablers' — meaning those in administrative roles — whose ratio relative to the group’s workforce is above the industry average. There were up to 16,000 enablers in Petronas at the time the plan was unveiled, as opposed to its global workforce of 52,000 to 53,000 people.