DOHA Qatar's largest employer, Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC), has asked all its subsidiaries and departments to freeze recruitment as part of a drive to save on costs. In view of the present economic condition the managing director has issued directives to freeze existing vacancies with immediate effect, said a Circular obtained by Reuters. The Circular, signed by Essa Rashid al-Kaabi, manager of organization and systems department, said: The 1999 manpower budget has only been approved for the existing manpower and no provision has been made for recruitment of any additional personnel against existing vacancies.

The Circular follows a similar directive, issued last November, which asked all QGPC subsidiaries and departments to lay off 15 percent of their staff and review salaries and perks to reduce their budgets. QGPC employs around 10,000 staff in its offshore and onshore oil and gas operations, Qatar fertilizers, Qatar petrochemical company and other subsidiaries. Qatar's Oil Minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is also managing director of QGPC, said earlier that reducing operational and capital costs was one of the measures being taken by QGPC to combat the effect of plunging oil prices.

He said Qatar lost between 27 and 39 percent of its monthly revenue in 1998 from the preset level because of the crash in oil prices. The government had based its 1998-99 budget (April-March) on a Qatari crude oil price of $13 a barrel and had hoped to earn $3.38 billion. But the income was drastically less. For the next budget beginning in April, Qatar has assumed an oil price of $10 a barrel.

Besides saving on manpower costs, QGPC is applying a special re-engineering technique and more efficient drilling, production and piping methods to reduce the average cost of producing a barrel of Qatari crude to 93 cents from the current $1.46. (Reuter)