Johari: Petronas downsizing out of gov't's hands

The layoffs in state petroleum company Petronas is beyond the government’s control, said Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani.

He said any firm would have to make adjustments if its revenue were to shrink significantly.

“In any business when the revenue drops significantly, I think any organisation for that matter – not only Petronas – we need to do some adjustments.

“So I think this adjustment is beyond government control. I think we’d leave the institution (Petronas) to manage that,” he told reporters today.

He was met by reporters in Kuala Lumpur after delivering his closing address for Khazanah Nasional’s two-day Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2016.

Petronas previously announced in March that it would lay off ‘under 1,000’ workers under a restructuring exercise, as the company struggles to make ends meet amid low crude oil prices.

In August, it report a fall in profits by 96 percent in the previous quarter due to the low prices, while the Wall Street Journal quoted sources saying that hundreds of Petronas employees were to be laid off.

Meanwhile, Johari was asked for updates on the arbitration proceedings by the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its subsidiary Aabar against 1MDB and its sole shareholder, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

However, the minister said the question should be directed to 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy instead.

“I don’t know. I think case management is somewhere in the first week of October. I’m not sure, I’ve got to check with Arul Kanda.

“Why don’t you go look for him? He is so quiet now,” he told reporters.

IPIC and Aabar had took MOF Inc and 1MDB for arbitration in June at the London Court of Arbitration to claim RM6.5 billion from them. -Mkini