Royal Dutch Shell Plc is planning to cut more than 400 jobs in the
Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology
operations, according to the staff consultation document seen by the
Reuters news agency.
The cuts are reportedly part of wider measures in response to lower oil prices.
Responding to questions from Reuters, the world’s second-largest oil
company by market capitalisation said in a statement that “approximately
400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last
quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”.
That represents around a quarter of the roles at the department. The group employs 92,000 worldwide.
“Shell is transforming into a simpler company,” a spokesman said,
adding the final number of job cuts would be subject to consultation
with employees. He declined to answer detailed questions about the
consultation document.
The proposed restructuring, which will also see dozens of research
roles move from the Netherlands to Bangalore, India, highlights how
lower oil prices are prompting the Anglo-Dutch oil giant to shift away
from the mega-projects which have been its focus for over 20 years.
According to Reuters, it also underscores an increasing shift of higher-value roles, such as research to lower cost countries.
“There will be fewer one-of-a-kind highly complex mega-projects and
proportionately more simple to medium complex projects… This heralds a
more ‘commoditised’ world for project delivery,” said the document,
which was given to royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used
by Shell staff, and seen by Reuters.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/shell-plans-hundreds-job-cuts/