UK supermajor Shell has reportedly started to slash hundreds of jobs, with employees in its low-carbon solutions among those first to the shown the door.
Staff this week were informed of details of the job cuts, after a broader plan for layoffs was announced internally in December, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed company insiders.
The energy behemoth last October said that 200 jobs in its low-carbon solutions — about 15% of the total — would be lost with a further 130 positions up for review.
Employees in the corporate affairs division have also been notified that they could face the axe, and other Shell departments could also see headcount reductions, Bloomberg reported.
Shell chief executive Wael Sawan, who took the helm at the start of 2023 on a basic annual salary of around $1.7m, has vowed to be “ruthless” in improving the company's performance and increasing investor returns.
“Shell aims to create more value with less emissions by focusing on performance, discipline and simplification across the business," a Shell spokesperson stated on Thursday.
"That includes delivering structural operating cost reductions of $2bn to $3bn by the end of 2025, as announced at our Capital Markets Day event in June 2023. Achieving those reductions will require portfolio high grading, new efficiencies and a leaner overall organisation.”
A Shell spokesperson last month confirmed the company’s ongoing streamlining plan but did not elaborate on the number of jobs that could be lost.
“While no formal targets exist, we will continuously look to right-size the activities that deliver the most value,” he said at the time.
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(A version of this article first appeared in Recharge's sister oil and gas publication on 18 January.
