DEPUTY Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusuf will be meeting the top brass of Petronas for a detailed briefing and to ensure the planned job cuts could be reduced or, if possible, avoided altogether.
He refuted claims that the move by the national oil giant to purportedly retrench 5,000 employees was linked to the recent recognition of Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) as Sarawak’s sole gas aggregator.
"No, the job cuts being planned have nothing to do with Sarawak claims on the gas rights.
"The global oil price had dropped drastically and Petronas is acting based on the latest situation in the global scenes where oil prices had dropped to US$65 per barrel from around US$75 to US$80.
"I will be holding a meeting with them soon to get more details and hopefully, we can find a way to reduce the number of job cuts or avoid retrenching any," he said.
Speaking at the Majlis Ibadah Korban held at Masjid Darul Husni Warrahmah in Kuching, Fadillah, who is also the minister of energy transition and water transformation, said the meeting with Petronas will be very soon.
It was recently reported that Petronas is planning a significant workforce reduction as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at cutting costs in response to falling crude oil price
