Managing director Thomas Abe said the decision was made during its board meeting on Sept 4 and conveyed to the staff by chairman Sir Brown Bai during a staff meeting held on Sept 11.
“The impact of the continued low oil prices has affected Petromin’s sole revenue source, fda Oil Ltd,” Abe said in a statement
“This has forced Petromin to undertake an organisation restructure to reduce operational costs.”
He said that pursuant to the organisation restructure, existing functions would be merged into three functions. Each function would report to the managing director. Current staff numbers would be reduced by up to 50 per cent with redundant staff receiving a redundancy payment in addition to their statutory entitlements.
Abe also stated that challenges facing Petromin are the same as those facing other industry participants such as Ok Tedi and Oil Search, who have already implemented the appropriate measures.
He said Petromin would soon change its name to Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited at beginning of next year, following the passing of the Kumul Minerals Holdings Ltd Authorisation Act by Parliament in June this year.
Abe said under this Act, Kumul Minerals would be the exclusive state nominee for all emerging mining projects. It would also acquire the state’s mineral assets currently held elsewhere.
He said the organisation restructure would empower Kumul Minerals to deliver its mandate using its existing resources.
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