Petronas to Cut 10% of Workforce, Denies Exiting Canada

Malaysian state energy firm Petroliam Nasional, or Petronas, will retrench about 10% of its workforce in a restructuring exercise, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Tengku Muhammad Taufik also denied at a media briefing that the state firm was exiting its business in Canada.

Local media has previously reported Petronas as saying it needed to "rightsize" its workforce to ensure the company's survival in the coming decades.

Petronas has nearly 50,000 employees, according to its website.

Bloomberg had reported earlier on Tuesday that Petronas is considering a sale of its Canadian company, formerly known as Progress Energy Resources Corp.

"Canada is crucial to our ambitions to preserve our position in the liquefied natural gas space," Tengku Taufik said.

(Reuters/Reporting by Ashley Tang in Kuala Lumpur, writing by Emily Chow in Singapore, editing by Mark Potter and Raju Gopalakrishnan)