The IMPERIAL OIL plans to reduce 20 percent of its workforce by the end of 2027 come as part of a wider tendency to reduce jobs in the industry, since manufacturers seek to increase efficiency in conditions of lower prices and the availability of new technologies.
The company announced on Monday the announcement that about 900 corporate positions would be lost, mainly in the Calgari.
He follows Cenovus Energy Inc., confirming dismissal in May, and Suncor Energy Inc. reduces about 1,500 employees as part of an optimizing shock in 2023.
Energy industry experts say that on Monday the announcement of Imperial Oil dismisses hundreds of Canadian workers, is part of a larger sectoral tendency associated with low oil prices, new technology and adverse state policy.
Canadian press/Larry McDugal
“I think that (the course of the imperial) is probably reflecting a wider impetus to the energy companies to find effectiveness,” said Lance Mortlock, the managing partner of Ey Canada in the field of industry and energy.
He said that efforts to optimize operations come against the backdrop of languid oil prices, technological availability and adverse politicians.
“We had a number of problem politicians and rules that made investments and growth in our oil and gas sector extremely difficult,” he said.
“When you have an economic and political environment that repels investors, the center of attention shifts on, ok, I'm not going to grow an asset, how can I sweat an asset?”
Many of these politicians were aimed at restricting the emissions of the oil and gas sector to solve the problem of climate change, but Mortlock said that he was still hoping to see the best balance between environmental and economic priorities.
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Companies have always strove for efficiency, but technologies make these efforts much more possible.
For example, the oil industry for years moved to independent trucks in mining operations, but the growth of artificial intelligence means that a wide level of jobs can be increasingly automated.
Since 2020, the EY report predicts that by 2040, drilling and equipment operators, as well as trade and equipment in the industry, can show a decrease in employment by more than 60 percent of AI.
The report says that the more technical work, the more it risks because of its predictability.
The report predicts that many jobs will be withdrawn from natural exhaustion, and not direct contractions.
In the recent report, Ey Canada was predicted that by 2040, at some workplaces of the oil industry, a decrease in employment by more than 60 percent of artificial intelligence may seem.
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Employment in the oil and gas industry was already on the tendency to decrease, at least when measuring compared to production.
Last month, the Pembranes Institute report that before the possession of oil prices in 2014, there was a peak of 38 direct workplaces of oil and gas per thousand barrels.
As of 2023, it fell by 43 percent to 22 direct jobs per thousand barrels.
The report states that the emphasis on maximizing profitability compared to large new sources of production, as well as automation and engineering work and designing in offshoring, which means that less new jobs will be created, even when production increases.
“The decade of aggressive reduction in expenses has led to a significant, and still stability-ditting of jobs in the oil and gas sector, while production has increased,” said Janetta Mackenzie, director of oil and gas at the Pembran Institute in her statement.
She said that this trend should have politicians to rethink how much the oil and gas sector should be considered as a guaranteed path to prosperity.
Imperial said it will be the centralization of corporate and technical activities in global business and technological centers using the infrastructure of its majority shareholders Exxonmobil Corp.
According to Morlok, while automation and other technological achievements exert descending pressure on jobs, efforts to increase production can limit effects.
“Talking about the growth in the spirit of maintaining the work of jobs can be more realistic than growth in the spirit of an increase in the number of jobs in the oil and gas sector.”
Some, however, still see the growth of jobs ahead for the industry.
Careers in Energy, Canada’s energy security unit, is predicted in the report at the beginning of last year, which expects that the energy industry will add from 41,600 to 46,500 direct jobs from 2022 to 2035.
The report includes ordinary oil and gas workplaces, as well as in the field of reduction of emissions, such as carbon capture and storage.
& Copy 2025 Canadian press
