04 February 2014, News Wires – Statoil is reportedly eliminating another 100 positions in further job cuts at the Norwegian state-owned oil giant as it is squeezed by rising costs.
The company, led by chief executive Helge Lund, now intends to reduce its business development department from 330 to 230 staff, according to an internal memo obtained by Norwegian business daily DN.
The reason for the move is that the company is chasing fewer new business opportunities as it already has a critical mass of existing projects to work with.
“The background is that we have built up a very strong resource base through active business development in recent years. We now have many opportunities for further development of Statoil,” a company spokesman was quoted as saying.
The redundancies will be implemented on a voluntary basis, with Statoil to offer termination packages and early pensions.
The company’s business development department is headed by London-based executive John Knight, although the spokesman said it was not the intention that all such staff should be located in the UK capital.
The latest job cuts follow Statoil’s recent decision to outsource 239 staff within its IT, functions, management, and finance and control departments.
As well as reducing its workforce, the company has also carried out asset sales as part of a streamlining effort to combat increasing costs that have taken a toll on its bottom line.
Analysts expect the company to report lower adjusted earnings after tax of Nkr12.8 billion for the fourth quarter when it discloses its quarterly and full-year results on 7 February, compared with Nkr15.1 billion in the same period of 2012.
If their forecast proves correct, this would leave Statoil with a full-year result of Nkr48.2 billion, which would be 12.5% down on the previous year’s figure of Nkr55.1 billion.
– Upstream
