State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) refuted the information disseminated by some local mass media about the forthcoming layoff in Azerigas and Neftgastikinti companies in 2015 caused by slump of oil prices.
SOCAR’s Human Resources Department told Caspian Barrel that the both companies are going to have staff changes and some layoff. However, this has nothing to do with reduction of oil prices or any financial problems of the company. The process is continuation of the process of improvement of the structural reforms, which started in the first half of 2014.
SOCAR will transit Azerigas from the three-step to a more operative two-step management system. For this reason the district gas departments will be replaced by the regional ones. The duplicating staff will be annulled. Secondly, this has to do with automated system of gas sale in Azerigas. As, 70% of gas is sold through the smart cards, there is no need in a big number of supervising employees. It is natural that Azerigas must be optimized in accordance with demands of time, because the company has done a lot of work from 2011 to 2014 and majority of the works have been already completed.
As far as Neftegastikinti trust is concerned, there are structural reforms in the management. The trust with numerous construction and assembly departments will also undergo the management optimization process to transit from three-step to a two-step system.
