Answer for Oral Question PL206

QUESTION

Yang Berhormat Awang Haji Salleh Bostaman bin Haji Zainal Abidin

YANG BERHORMAT AWANG HAJI SALLEH BOSTAMAN BIN HAJI ZAINAL ABIDIN asked the MENTERI JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI to state, given that the right-sizing of the oil and gas industry may result in talent leakage, what mechanisms are used by JPM and the industry authorities to assess the need to release local workers as compared to retaining expatriates, as well as to track and redeploy local skilled workers to strategic sectors?

ANSWER

Yang Berhormat Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri

It cannot be denied that the optimisation of operations and costs in the upstream sector is necessary to maintain the competitiveness and sustainability of production from increasingly mature assets, including through the alignment of work scopes and the consolidation of service contracts.

In this context, it must be understood that not all workers leaving the upstream industry are doing so as a result of right-sizing. Workforce releases occur due to various factors, including voluntary early retirement, contract and operational optimisation, reductions in work scopes, and the expiry of contracts when a project or service contract has ended.

Projections at the beginning of 2026 indicated that the reduction would involve both groups of local and expatriate workers over the next two years, namely one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven (1,377) local workers and one thousand two hundred and forty-nine (1,249) expatriate workers potentially affected by contract and operational optimisation.

Therefore, the Government and industry are working closely together to prioritise the redeployment of local workers.

Of the five hundred and ninety-six (596) local workers affected to date, comprising professional, technical, skilled and semi-skilled workers, three hundred and eight (308), or fifty-two (52) per cent, have successfully been redeployed to the upstream sector, and a small number to the electric power sector and other sectors through several immediate intervention measures, including:

i. Seven HR Connect sessions from January 2026 to July 2026, which successfully redeployed eighteen (18) local workers;

ii. Strengthened screening of foreign workers’ work permits and job matching efforts with companies that have suitable vacancies, which successfully redeployed one hundred and fifty-nine (159) local workers; and

iii. Promotion of the profiles of affected local workers to prospective employers and the sharing of information on vacancies at companies through direct communication with companies, which successfully redeployed one hundred and thirty-one (131) local workers.

In the medium and long term, efforts are also focused on ensuring that local workers remain competitive and ready to meet the industry’s future needs. These include:

i. Strengthening succession and competency development plans progressively to prepare local workers to take over positions still held by expatriate workers;

ii. Coordination through the Manpower Industry Steering Committee (MISC) – Energy Working Group to ensure that local workers possess diverse skills so that they remain relevant, competitive and ready to meet the ever-evolving needs of the industry; and

iii. Continuous monitoring of developments in energy projects so that workforce planning, training and redeployment can be carried out earlier in accordance with industry needs.