Article content continued

“These are never easy decisions, as all of these people have made important contributions to Nexen and to finance,” she said. “I want to assure you that everybody is being treated very fairly.”

Several calls to Nexen requesting further information were not returned.

The Calgary Herald was invited to listen to the conference call by a Nexen staff member who asked not to be identified — he said he was also being laid off and knows of several other cuts in his department.

Power said “standardization” is more important now that Nexen is part of a bigger organization and that its new structure is “well aligned with head office.”

CNOOC’s $15.1-billion acquisition of Nexen Inc. two years ago triggered a change in Canadian foreign investment rules to ban state-owned enterprises from gaining control of oilsands assets in the future. Nexen was said over the summer to be cutting costs and staff, despite CNOOC assuring Ottawa it would retain all of its executives and employees.

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said Wednesday he suspects the reorganization has more to do with the falling price of oil than the fact Nexen is owned by a Chinese national company.

“That’s a problem for China. Even when they do things everyone else does, they’re singled out,” he said, adding there has never been much detail in exactly what assurances CNOOC gave the federal government on Nexen employment.

“There is a basket of issues there. I’m sure it’s the oil price. I’m sure that plays into forward-looking expectations of the profitability of the company and revenues. And some of it may be that there’s a general pressure on SOEs in their country to maximize value and make sure they are operating in the most efficient manner.”