00:00 Oil and gas company Santos released a statement yesterday revealing about 200 of its staff
00:07 members have been laid off following a detailed review into its Western Australia, Northern
00:11 Territory and Timor-Leste business unit.
00:14 Santos says one of the reasons for the job losses is that new project approvals are taking
00:19 longer delaying some of the company's growth activities.
00:22 It also says with some of its late life assets nearing closure there's also an increasing
00:27 near term focus on capital intensive decommissioning activities.
00:31 The company says the roles affected are mainly Perth based with a small number based in other
00:36 locations.
00:37 WA's Premier Roger Cook responded to the layoffs telling parliament Santos was referring to
00:42 Commonwealth approvals as the company currently has no projects before the state's Environmental
00:47 Protection Authority.
00:49 He says he's certain the impacted employees will find work elsewhere.
00:53 I suspect Madam Speaker that there are oil and gas companies right across Western Australia
00:57 at the moment which are rubbing their hands with glee to get hold of these workers.
01:02 The fact of the matter is there is a huge demand for workers in this particular sector.
01:07 In its statement Santos said it had not made this decision lightly and said support will
01:11 be provided to impacted employees.
01:14 Santos which has its headquarters based in Adelaide had previously been in merger talks
01:19 with Perth based global energy giant Woodside which could have seen the creation of an $80
01:24 billion company.
01:25 In February Woodside announced that those merger talks ended without a deal.
01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments