Sinopec Oilfield Service Corp plans to cut 4,000 jobs this year citing structural overstaffing, having let go 2,000 employees in the first half, company spokesman Li Honghai has said.

The planned lay-offs account for just under 5% of the company’s total staffing. The job reductions include early retirements and cut-off to employment contracts extensions, Li told Reuters over the phone. Li said company staffing was bloated due to over-rapid expansions during days of high oil prices.

It would be recalled that last year, China’s Sinopec Group was said to have hired BNP Paribas to sell its oil business in Nigeria and Gabon, as the state-owned oil giant pares back its presence in Africa. “Sinopec is trying to sever ties,” a source told Reuters. “It has hired BNP to sell (its) assets in Nigeria and Gabon.”

Sinopec spent $7.24 billion in 2009 for Switzerland-based Addax Petroleum, its largest ever foreign oil acquisition, to secure assets in Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon and Iraq that were licensed for extraction and exploration. They offered considerable potential as commodity prices rose but bankers expect the Nigeria and Gabon assets to sell for less than $1 billion.

Source: Oriental News