Sapura Energy in Austerity Drive

Sapura Energy Berhad has revealed that it is undertaking a series of austerity measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and low oil prices.

As part of the new measures, the company’s leadership team will be taking a fifty percent cut in salaries with immediate effect. The austerity measures also include the readjustment of all employee salaries between five to forty five percent, effective after Ramadhan, as well as a workforce reduction.

“As leaders, it is imperative that we take the hit as much as we can to protect our people, particularly those who are most vulnerable in our ranks,” Sapura Energy President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin, said in a company statement.

“In the past year, we have done a lot of work to strengthen the company, including growing our top line and improving efficiencies in the way we operate. However, Covid-19 and low oil prices have impacted our financial strength,” he added.

“To sustain our business, we need to implement immediate austerity measures to preserve our cash flow,” he continued.

Shahril outlined that the leadership team has built a strategy to navigate Sapura Energy out of the current storm and highlighted that if the company maintains its resilience, it will “come out of this leaner and stronger”.

Headquartered in Malaysia, Sapura Energy Berhad describes itself as a global integrated oil and gas services and solutions provider operating across the entire upstream value chain.

According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), as of April 26, there have been 2.8 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus globally, with 193,710 deaths. Malaysia has seen 5,427 confirmed cases of the virus and 98 deaths, as of April 26, the latest WHO data shows.

At the time of writing, Brent was trading at around $21 per barrel.

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