June 02, 2023
By Charles Kennedy

Suncor, the Canadian oil sands major, will cut 1,500 jobs this year as it seeks to turn its financial fortunes.

A spokesperson for the company said the cuts will affect both employees and contractors, Bloomberg reported. Employees were informed about the cuts, the spokesperson also said.

With the job cuts, Suncor would be able to slash costs by some $400 million, according to the company’s new chief executive, Rich Kruger, as cited by CBC News.

"Staffing reductions will occur at all levels of the organization and will be based on both performance and business need. As we do this, we will eliminate work, critically looking at what we do, why we do it, how we do it and the value it adds," Kruger said in a message to employees cited in the CBC report on the news.

According to company data cited by CBC, Suncor had 16,558 employees as of the end of 2022, which was down from 16,922 a year earlier.

Bloomberg noted in its report that Suncor has been under pressure from shareholders to improve its financial performance and share price.

Suncor’s latest quarterly financial report showed higher earnings than expected by analysts but much lower on an annual basis.

Rich Kruger took the helm of Suncor in early April and promised to streamline the oil sands operator’s business into a “simpler and more focused organization”.

At the same time, however, the company is expanding, production-wise. Earlier this year, Suncor struck a deal with French supermajor TotalEnergies to acquire its entire Canadian oil sands portfolio for over $4 billion as demand for oil encourages production expansion.

In further evidence of the strength of that demand, ConocoPhillips refused to waive its right of first refusal on one of Total’s oil sands projects and instead used it to acquire the whole operation in Surmont.