China National Petroleum Corporation, state-owned parent of PetroChina, said it aims to cut its head count by 5 percent, or 80,000 workers, over three years to counter rising costs after earnings dropped.

China National Petroleum Corporation, state-owned parent
of PetroChina, said it aims to cut its head count by 5
percent, or 80,000 workers.

According to a statement posted on Friday by CNPC, the job-cut proposal came amid excessively rapid growth in investment and costs. CNPC also said it will improve its salary distribution system to control per-capita costs, as well as cut non-production spending such as the purchase of luxury cars and overseas trips by 10 percent.

Dow Jones reported the company's pretax profit dropped 39 percent to 56.4 billion yuan in the first half in annualized terms. CNPC's social responsibility report said the company's workforce totals 1.67 million.