Addax Petroleum Company on Tuesday confirmed the proposed closure of its corporate offices in Geneva, Aberdeen and Houston in the United States of America.
Douglas Chene-Bougeries, the Public Relations Officer, Geneva, Switzerland branch of the company, made this known in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos.
Chene-Bougeries said that the Chinese-owned oil firm, a subsidiary of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Petroleum Corporation, was streamlining its business management model.
According to him, this is directly in response to the continued downturn in the oil and gas industry caused by low oil prices.
He said: “SIPC is the shareholder in Addax Petroleum and this rationalisation is designed to reduce management duplication, improve efficiency and secure long-term business sustainability.
“This will see Addax Petroleum’s Geneva office integrated with SIPC’s Headquarters in Beijing and the Geneva office to be closed by the end of this year.
“Addax Petroleum’s corporate offices in Aberdeen, UK and Houston, U.S will also be closed.
“As part of the integration process, SIPC will establish an Addax Technical Centre in Beijing that will provide technical services to Addax Petroleum and SIPC operating companies.”
Chene-Bougeries said that in view of the closure of Addax Petroleum’s corporate offices in Geneva, Aberdeen and Houston, Addax Petroleum’s operating companies and joint ventures would start reporting directly to SIPC Headquarters.
He said: “As from August 9, 2017, and during the entire month of August, Addax Petroleum will conduct a consultation process to engage with its 174 affected staff in Geneva.
“Through this process, Addax Petroleum will seek to mitigate the impact of this organisational change on its staff and provide them with the necessary support.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Addax was bought by China’s state-owned Sinopec, Asia’s largest oil refiner, in 2009.
On March 24, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, in its Geneva Office, Zhang Yi, and the Legal Director were arrested and charged with alleged millions of dollars payments to an unnamed company and some lawyers in Nigeria.
On June 6, Addax Petroleum reached an agreement to pay a 31 million Swiss francs (about N11.5 billion) fine in Geneva, Switzerland to settle the bribery charges against some officials in Nigeria.
