France’s oil and gas company Total S.A. announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs by 2017, as well as to sell assets at the rate of $5.5 billion in 2015 because of the unstable situation on oil market.
Total said they planned to stop hiring new staff for production, refinery and petrochemicals operations as part of plans to reduce costs by $4 billion this year.
“The restructuring plan shows the company’s determination to get to grips with the shift in oil markets without overreacting. We don’t gamble at the casino. We need a company that resists whatever the oil price is,” said Total’s Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne on Thursday.
With the implementation of the new projects, Total said they expect to raise the oil production by 8% in 2015.
Total is Europe’s third-largest oil company. In 2015, Total was developing five large projects in Russia and owned a 12% stake in Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer Novatek.
