KOTA KINABALU – Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor will meet with Shell Malaysia officials regarding the purported closure of the oil firm’s 35 kiosks across Sabah and Labuan scheduled for January next year.
“I will be meeting with Shell Malaysia chairman Siti Hurrairah Sulaiman to find out more about the situation and the fate of affected retailers in Sabah and Labuan,” he said in a statement today.
Shell Timur Sdn Bhd, the operator of Shell kiosks in Sabah and Labuan, has confirmed that it will be closing several less productive retail stations in East Malaysia to sustain the company’s performance in an ongoing review.
It was reported that the number of affected kiosks are 12 in Sandakan, ten in Tawau, six in Lahad Datu, two in Semporna, two in Labuan, and one each in Likas, Telipok, and Kuala Penyu.
The closures are set to occur on January 8 next year.
A Tawau Shell kiosk operator was quoted by Oriental Daily as saying that they had received a letter from Shell Timur Sdn Bhd last June 5 on the closure.
In a meeting with senior Shell Malaysia executives, all affected operators were informed that the firm has been making losses for many years due to the automatic price mechanism in Malaysia, which has not been adjusted since 1998.
The closures would result in 500 employees being laid off, and may affect vendors and suppliers like transportation agencies, petrol station maintenance and repair contractors, and grocery suppliers, among others.
In 2020, Shell had announced its plans to downsize operations in the state capital here and later relocated to Miri in Sarawak, the oil company’s original upstream headquarters. – The Vibes, June 23, 2023
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