Shell Starts Layoffs in Search of Efficiencies

Shell has begun hundreds of layoffs, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Thursday, 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, Bloomberg’s sources said. 

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.

The UK-based supermajor plans to eliminate 200 jobs in its Low Carbon Solutions division next year, and is also reviewing the future of another 130 positions in the green energy business, which currently employs around 1,300 people, Shell told Reuters in October.  

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

“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.

Last year, Shell laid out plans to raise its dividend by 15%, effective from the second quarter 2023 interim dividend, as the UK-based supermajor pledged to grow its gas business and extend its position in the upstream.

Institutional investors in Europe were disappointed with Shell’s new strategy to continue investing in oil and gas production and selectively pour capital into renewable energy solutions, to the point of some investors considering removing it from their portfolios.

But Shell’s chief executive Wael Sawan has said that reducing global oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible” as the world still desperately needs those hydrocarbons.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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