Imperial Oil Job Cuts are amid a broader efficiency of technology efficiency in the energy industry

The plans of Imperial Oil to lower 20 percent of its workforce by the end of 2027 comes as part of a broader trend of job reductions in industry, because producers want to increase efficiency in the midst of lower oil prices and the availability of new technology.

The company said in his Monday announcement that around 900 business positions would be lost, usually in Calgary.

It follows Cenovus Energy Inc. who confirms in May, and Suncor Energy Inc. Who in 2023 cuts around 1500 employees into a streamlining push.

“I think (the step of Imperial is) probably a wider push by energy companies reflecting to find efficiency,” said Lance Mortlock, EY Canada Managing Partner in Industrials and Energy.

He said that efforts to streamline the activities, in the midst of growing oil prices, technological availability and unfavorable policy.

“We have had a number of problematic policy measures and regulations that have made investments and growth in our oil and gas sector extremely difficult,” he said.

“If you have an economic and a policy environment that pushes away investors, the focus shifts to, ok, I am not going to let the assets grow, how do I sweat it actively?”

Many of those policy measures are aimed at limiting the oil and gas sector emissions to tackle climate change, but Mortlock said that he still hopes to see a better balance will be affected between environmental and economic priorities.

Companies have always insisted on efficiency, but technology makes those efforts much more possible.

The Oilsands industry has been moving to self-driving trucks in mining activities for years, but the growth of artificial intelligence means that a wide strip of jobs can increasingly be automated.

An EY report of 2020 predicted that in 2040 drilling and equipment operators and transactions and technicians in the industry a decrease in employment could see more than 60 percent fall due to AI.

The report said that the more technical the job, the more risk runs, it is because of the predictability.

The report predicted that many of the jobs will be phased out by natural wear instead of direct cuts.

Employment in the oil and gas industry has already had a downward trend, at least when measured compared to production.

A report last month of the Pembina Institute showed that before the collapse of the oil price of 2014 there was a peak of 38 direct oil and gas courses per thousand barrels produced per a thousand barrels produced.

From 2023 that had fallen by 43 percent to 22 direct jobs per thousand barrels.

The report said that a focus on maximizing return on large new production sources, together with automation and offshoring engineering and design work, means that fewer new jobs will probably be created, even when production increases.

“A decade of aggressive cost savings has now retained a significant summit of jobs in the oil and gas sector, while production has increased,” said Janetta McKenzie, director of oil and gas at Pembina Institute in a statement.

She said that the trend policy makers should be reconsidered how much the oil and gas sector should be considered as a guaranteed path to prosperity.

Imperial said that business and technical activities in global business and technology centers would centralize, so that the infrastructure of the majority shareholder ExxonMobil Corp.

Although automation and other technological progress exert down -on pressure on jobs, efforts to stimulate production can limit the effects, Mortlock said.

“About the growth in the spirit of keeping jobs can be more realistic than the growth in the spirit of increasing the number of jobs in the oil and gas sector.”

However, some still see job growth for industry.

Careers in Energy, a division of Energy Safety Canada, predicted at the beginning of last year in a report that it expects the energy industry to add between 41,600 and 46,500 direct jobs between 2022 and 2035.

The report includes conventional oil and gas courses, as well as in areas with emission reductions such as carbon capture and storage.

& copy 2025 The Canadian Press