Petronas denies salary cut, retrenchment

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has denied that its exploration and production arm, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, has undertaken a salary reduction exercise and staff retrenchment.

Its president/chief executive officer, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, said there were no plans to reduce salaries of staff, whether for Petronas Carigali or Petronas group as a whole.

"It wasn't an accurate reporting. This is part of our cost optimisation exercise with our service providers.

"Essentially, we are looking at service providers that are providing us with professionals with salary range of more than RM20,000 per month right up to even RM100,000 per month," he told reporters after Petronas Dagangan Bhd's annual general meeting here today.

Wan Zulkiflee was commenting on a newspaper report yesterday, saying that Petronas Carigali was going to cut the salaries of its employees in view of the challenging market conditions caused by low global oil prices, effective May 1, 2015.

The report quoted Petronas Carigali as saying that it would continue investing to sustain production levels despite the low oil price environment affecting its expenditure and projects feasibility.

It said, however, as it would be challenging to do so at the current cost structure and as part of its cost optimisation efforts, the company decided to revise the salary rates.

Petronas Carigali explores, develops and produces oil and gas in Malaysia via production-sharing contracts with up to 90 per cent of the company's cost base is via its partner contractors.