Brazilian state-run giant Petrobras has revealed more job cuts than originally expected as part of previously announced reorganisation plans to save up to 1.8 billion reais ($500 million) per year.
The company revealed on Wednesday there would be a headcount reduction of about 43% in about 5300 management positions in non-operational areas.
This was well above previously announced plans to reduce staff by at least 30% in January as part of a restructure, which also included the redistribution of activities and merging of business areas as it looks to cut costs and adapt to falling oil prices.
Petrobras said Wednesday, the areas of presidency and human resources, and SMS services, corporate and service functions will be centralised which it claims will bring activities which were scattered in the company to their respective units.
Technical skills and project units will also be centralised in a single area, production and technology development, while the areas of supply and gas and energy will become part of the refining and natural gas business.
Petrobras will also reorganise its exploration and production business by asset classes, including deep-water, ultra-deepwater, shallow water and onshore which it says will enable better management of assets and optimise production.
The company’s new governance model is aimed at strengthening the accountability mechanism of managers and will see the creation of six technical committees composed of executive managers who are responsible for decisions and will have the responsibility of pre-screening and issuing recommendations on issues to the board.
In January, Petrobras revealed the restructuring would result in the reduction of 14 roles in senior management and the number of directors falling from seven to six. On Wednesday it revealed the board had approved the appointment of the six directors.
Roberto Moro will head up development of production and technology, Solange da Silva Guedes is director of exploration and production, Jorge Celestino Ramos will become director of refining and natural gas, Ivan de Souza Monteiro will head financial and investor relations, Hugo Repsold Junior will become director of human resources, SMS and services, while Joao Adalberto Elek Junior has been appointed director of governance, risk and compliance.
The current Petrobras board of directors is made up of technical appointees, marking a break from the past practice of linking each division to a political party.
This form of patronage has fallen out of favour in the wake of the giant Car Wash corruption probe, raising the probability that the current directors will keep their jobs even if President Dilma Rousseff falls victim to an ongoing impeachment process.
石油圈
