Oil Majors Shell And Marathon Cut Jobs

Marathon Oil and Shell both announced on Thursday that they have cut—or will cut--more jobs, and more oil industry job cuts may be on the horizon.

Bowing to the green energy transition, Royal Dutch Shell said it would freeze salaries for most of its employees this year, according to sources who shared the information with World Oil.

Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden told staff in a note that even though many were promised raises this year, the raises would not be forthcoming. Shell employees also shouldn’t expect bonus payments this year—something Shell told the employees last summer not to expect.

Shell said last week that the oil company may shed as many as 9,000 jobs over the next two years as the company undergoes a huge reorganization as it readies for the looming transition to green energy, with some of the job cuts already announced.

Houston-based Marathon Oil, for its part, confirmed on Thursday that it, too, is cutting employees, but it did not say how many. It also slashed the salaries of executives and board members. But unlike Shell, Marathon Oil is attributing the job cuts to shoring up their bottom line as part of a “commitment to continuously optimize our cost structure”.

Shell and Marathon Oil are not alone. Mexico’s Pemex is cutting jobs at all of its six refineries, although this will be through attrition, and TC Energy has cut jobs as the Keystone Pipeline was cut.

And more job cuts may be coming. In a recent DNV survey of senior professionals working in UKCS, 45% see more job cuts coming—this is down from 19% last year.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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