Royal Dutch Shell said today that it intends to cut an additional 2,200 jobs. This is due to the persistently weak oil price and is a result of the company’s £35bn takeover of BG Group.
This takes the total job cuts resulting from the integration of its smaller rival to at least 5,000 globally, including 475 job losses in the UK. Only recently Shell announced that it would be cutting its 2016 spending plans by another 10 percent.
Axed
The news comes on top of the 7,500 jobs axed last year after oil prices more than halved. The firm’s shares rose as much as 0.9 per cent to 1,676.4p per share in response to the news.
Paul Goodfellow, Shell’s vice president for the UK and Ireland, said: “Despite the improvements that we have made to our business, current market conditions remain challenging.”
“Our integration with BG provides an opportunity to accelerate our performance in this ‘lower for longer’ environment.”
“We need to reduce our cost base, improve production efficiency and have an organisation that best fits our combined portfolio and business plans,” he added.
Shell shareholders yesterday approved its remuneration report, however those opposing it rose from 3.8per cent last year to 14.2 percent in 2016. Investor anger was prompted by the multi-million euro pay packages that have been allotted to Shell’s top execs, despite the company’s sliding margins.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
