Business News
Home >
Business >
Business News
Wednesday, 21 September 2016 | MYT 8:50 AM
Petronas looking to cut several hundred more jobs
KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is looking to cut several hundred more jobs as it continues to grapple with weak oil prices, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that the national oil company is planning ti axe the jobs at its publicly listed operations,
Petronas, which provides most of the government’s oil and gas revenue, said in March that it was cutting 1,000 jobs.
WSJ said this came after Petronas said it would slash spending by some US$11.4bil over the next four years. As at end-2015, Petronas had 53,000 employees.
Quoting a statement from Petronas, WSJ reported the national oil company as saying it continually reviews its business strategies and staffing levels as it adjusts to changes in demand.
“This transformation exercise cuts across the entire Petronas group, including at subsidiary levels,” the company said in a statement. “More information will be disclosed as and when appropriate.”
The three companies which are listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities are
Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd,
Petronas Gas Bhd and
Petronas Dagangan Bhd.
WSJ said Petronas Chemicals employed 4,659 people, Petronas Gas 2,187 people and Petronas Dagangan 1,900 people based on their 2015 annual reports.
http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/09/21/petronas-looking-to-cut-several-hundred-more-jobs/
Wan Zul’s mission to change Petronas
Chief executive of national oil company says a shift in the company’s cultural belief is required to give it the desired results in the low crude oil price environment
It would be difficult to find a group of people who are more profoundly immersed in their beliefs than the 1,000-odd staff at the operations centre of the Formula One (F1) team of Mercedes AMG Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Bhd) in Brackley, outside London.
After each race, everyone involved – from the driver of the truck that holds all the computers to race engineers – work out the details on how to further fine-tune the cars. Technology is used extensively to the extent of studying tyre marks and testing samples of the lubricants.
The overall objective is to win the next race in the high-profile F1 World Championship.
For Petronas’ president and chief executive Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, the high-performance culture coupled with cutting-edge technology at the operations centre in Brackley are values that he hopes will eventually transcend into reshaping the culture of the national oil and gas (O&G) company.
“We need to have a quantum change in the cultural beliefs of the whole group to be a high-performance company. We are talking about inculcating a sense of belonging, taking ownership and sharing success.
“A change in the cultural beliefs will translate into actions that produce results we would want to see in the future years,” he told a group of journalists during a visit to the Mercedes AMG operations centre in London.
Taking over the helm of Petronas at a time when oil prices were on a free fall, Wan Zulkiflee has not had it easy. He had to bring the knife to the operations of the company that employs 51,000 people, including 11,000 non-Malaysians, as the price of oil fell to less than US$30 per barrel.
Now, crude oil is hovering around US$46 per barrel, coming off its recent high of just above US$50.
For the first time in its 42-year history, the national O&G company laid off employees and froze increments.
Critics feel that Petronas can do more in cutting down staff. On the change in culture and inculcating a sense of ownership, the critics say that the culture in Petronas, as in many Government-linked companies, is that everybody wants to take ownership in only successful projects.
“When it comes to less-successful projects, nobody wants to take ownership,” says a former executive of Petronas.
“Wan Zul”, as he is fondly known, has been earmarked for the top position of Petronas since 2010. After former president and chief executive Tan Sri Hassan Marican’s contract was not renewed, Wan Zulkiflee was tipped to take over.
However, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak recalled Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas, who had then retired from Petronas, to head Petronas.
Before assuming the top position in March last year, Wan Zulkiflee, who has been with Petronas since 1983, was the group chief operating officer and chief executive in charge of the downstream operations. Equipped with experience in both the upstream and downstream operations, Wan Zulkiflee focused on six strategies to reshape Petronas.
Three of the strategies were short-term measures to cope with the changing environment of low oil prices. They were to maximise cash-generation activities, focus on delivering projects such as the massive development in Pengerang within cost, and reduce operating cost by the simplification of operations.
Wan Zulkiflee says that by merely collaborating with the production sharing contract partners, Petronas has reduced cost by RM3.4bil over one year.
Its major capital commitments in the next few years include the RM60bil project to build a refinery and integrated petrochemical hub in Pengerang, Johor, and the completion of the second floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel.
Petronas has already taken delivery of the first FLNG and has pushed the schedule of the second FLNG from 2018 to 2020.
The FLNG is a purpose-built vessel with the latest technology that allows for the gas to be processed offshore. Hence, small fields that were uneconomical previously can now be developed.
Wan Zulkiflee believes that technology will be the differentiating factor for Petronas as the company moves forward.
“Going forward, technology will play a different role in the company. Petronas will commit to investing in technology irrespective of the crude oil price,” he says.
Having cutting-edge technology and a change in Petronas’ cultural beliefs are elements that Wan Zulkiflee says will be the longer-term measures that will shape the national O&G company.
On changing the cultural beliefs of the 42-year-old company, Wan Zulkiflee says that the employees have been told to first look at how they interact with each other when they come to office.
“How they deal with human resource issues or delays in the finance department. The emphasis is on execution and having a sense of ownership.
“Everything they do should be for the greater good of Petronas. They must have the same cultural belief,” he says.
Among the initiatives that Petronas has launched as part of its efforts to change the culture is to nurture trust among staff that it is “safe” to criticise the company.
Wan Zulkiflee says under the programme called “Tell Me”, he has been receiving a lot of e-mails.
“About 55% of the staff are below the age of 35 and we have been engaging at all levels,” he adds.
Low-cost environment to continue
It is easy to fathom why Wan Zulkiflee wants to bring about a paradigm shift in the culture of Petronas. Although the national O&G company has brought down operating cost by 14% through its initiatives to cope with the low oil price environment, it still has some way to go.
Based on the latest results for the second quarter of this year for the period ended June 30, Petronas’ cash flows from operations are still dropping, while its capital commitments remain.
In the first six months of this year, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was down 20% to RM33.35bil, while cash flow from operations was down 26% to RM25.63bil.
This came on the back of a decreased revenue of RM97.57bil for the first six months of this year compared to RM127.5bil in the corresponding period last year. The profit for the first half of this year was down 72% to RM6.18bil, largely due to the amortisation of assets to reflect the lower oil prices.
During the same period, Petronas’ capital investments were down 20% to RM25.16bil. The investments are mainly for the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Johor and some downstream projects.
The next two years will be crucial for Petronas to ensure its cash flows remain healthy to cope with its investments.
Beyond that, there are bigger investments for the national O&G company, especially in Canada where it has a US$27.5bil project to liquefy and export natural gas from British Columbia.
Petronas’ partners in the Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal are Brunei National Petroleum Co, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd.
The cost includes the construction of two liquefaction plants, marine terminals, pipelines and storage tanks. Part of the cost of the project also takes into account what Petronas had paid when it acquired Canada-based Progress Energy Resources Corp in 2012.
The project, which is slated to start in 2019, has yet to get approval from the Canadian authorities, which means that the consortium need not make a decision on its investment on the Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal project.
The delay is something that is probably working in favour of Petronas because the capital commitment to the Canadian project is high and may not be something that is viable in the low oil price environment.
According to the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the supply of crude oil will continue to outstrip demand going into next year due to rising production and falling demand.
This means that the low oil price regime, which started in mid-2014, is likely to continue into 2017. Demand from major oil guzzlers such as India and China has still not picked up yet.
In the meantime, the stockpile of crude oil held by developed nations hit a record 3.1 billion barrels in July, as refinery activities reached a peak and countries from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) step up production.
The Middle-East producers such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates hit their highest output levels in August. According to the IEA, the output from Saudi Arabia was near record highs, while production from Iran, which has just come out of exile, reached a post-sanction high.
The Opec countries, led by Saudi Arabia, are employing the tactic of flooding the market so that it will keep oil prices low for a prolonged period and wear out competitors from higher-cost production fields.
The competitors are from the non-Opec countries and operators of shale O&G in the United States. At the current oil price of Brent Crude at below US$50 per barrel, production at high-cost, oil-producing fields such as the North Sea and deep-waters are not viable.
As for shale O&G, the cost of production for most fields is about US$60 per barrel. However, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy that specialises in O&G, the break-even cost for investments in some fields in the US, such as the Permian Basin in West Texas, requires Brent Crude to be as low as US$39 per barrel.
With the low oil price environment set to stay for some time, it leaves Wan Zulkiflee with little choice but to bring about a paradigm shift in the culture of Petronas.
Cost has to keep coming down to accommodate the low oil price environment, while investments, especially in technology, is something that the company cannot avoid if it is to keep reducing its cost of production.
This would mean that Petronas has less financial resources to spend to build up its O&G reserves. This is a tough act even for a seasoned hand such as Wan Zulkiflee.
http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/09/17/wan-zuls-mission-to-change-petronas/