French oil and gas supermajor, Total has suffered a whooping $12 billion deficit in its revenues forecast.
The company, which also announced planned to ensuŕe cost cutting to meet the deficit, maintained that it anticipated a $12bn revenue shortfall due to a fall in oil prices triggered by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.
Job losses or what the International Oil Companies (IOCs) prefer to refer to as downsizing is one of the potent measures of cost cutting. Chevron, with a similar case of revenues shortfall, had already announced the the plan to sack over 6000 staff in its global operations.
The latest announcement of $12 billion deficit by Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne is significantly higher than the previous deficit forecast of $9bn.
The increase is expected to force Total to devise deeper cost cut measures, reported Reuters.
According to Pouyanne, Total had expected oil prices to stand at around $60 a barrel this year, but with prices currently at around $30, the company faces a much bigger shortfall.
Reuters quoted Pouyanne as saying in a shareholders’ general assembly meeting: “It is globally at least $12bn that we believe we must cover through our action plan due to the crisis.”
