OTTAWA: Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas has received the go-ahead from the Canadian government for a US$27 billion gas project. Canada placed 190 conditions on the project approval, which Petronas will have to meet in order to proceed, reports Bloomberg.
“The announcement was just made this morning. I think we need time to look at the conditions and then we will have a review,” said Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, Petronas Group CEO and president, when asked about the deal in KL on Wednesday (Sep 28). “I’ve not seen the details of the announcement yet,” he added. Meanwhile, Wan Zulkiflee would not confirm nor deny reports that there would be hundreds more retrenchments at Petronas, as oil and gas prices remain weak. Petronas already announced about 1000 job cuts earlier this year.
“We always look at the business and opportunities for optimising cost. At the appropriate time, if any, we will issue a statement,” he said, when asked to confirm the reports. Petronas is wholly owned by the Malaysian government. On Wednesday, Malaysia’s second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani indicated entrenchments were par for the course.
“In any business, when revenue drops significantly, any organisation, not just Petronas, needs to do adjustment,” he told the media. “It’s beyond government control, we will leave the institution to manage it.”
