Shell Plans to Cut 20% of Jobs in Its M&A Unit

The ongoing job cuts at Shell are extending to the team handling mergers and acquisitions for the supermajor as the oil and gas giant is looking to eliminate around 20% of several hundred positions in the M&A unit, unnamed sources familiar with the plans have told Bloomberg.

Shell has been saying for months that it is pursuing a leaner organization and aims to make larger cost savings by reducing headcount.

In 2022, Shell employed more than 90,000 people.

After job cuts in the low-carbon energy division, Shell has expanded the reductions to other teams and now it’s the turn of the deals team, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

Staff in the team, who are estimated at several hundred employees, have been told to expect a significant number of positions to be eliminated, with details to be communicated in April, the sources told the newswire.

Last year, Shell said it plans to cut 15% of the 1,300 jobs in its Low Carbon Solutions business as it scales back some green energy ambitions and focuses on profitable projects including in the oil and gas sector.

In December 2023, the oil major announced internally a broader plan for job cuts in other departments, too.

Early this year, Shell began hundreds of layoffs, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg in January, as the supermajor looks to create more value through simplification and discipline.

Positions in the low-carbon business will be the first to be eliminated, followed by additional job cuts in the corporate affairs division and project and technology departments, according to Bloomberg’s sources. 

“Shell aims to create more value with less emissions by focusing on performance, discipline and simplification,” a spokesperson for the supermajor told Bloomberg.

“Achieving those reductions will require portfolio high grading, new efficiencies and a leaner overall organization,” the spokesperson added.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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