…330 Workers In UK Over COVID-19 Restrictions
Yemisi Izuora
Oil giant Shell has concluded plans to sack 330 personnel in the UK due to COVID restrictions – with thousands more to follow
The move forms part of 9,000 jobs set to be axed across the business over the next two years following a collapse in demand for oil due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic
As well as cutting costs, Shell says it wants to be a net-zero emissions energy company by 2050
The oil giant said it plans to shed a quarter of its workforce in Aberdeen by December 2022.
Around 330 jobs are to go from a total of 1,330 UK roles over the next two years.
It cited the switch to low-carbon electricity and the coronavirus pandemic for its decision.
The move forms part of wider plans to cut 9,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years, following a collapse in demand for oil amid global lockdowns.
Royal Dutch Shell said the cuts would be implemented by 2022, it told The Mirror a further 1,500 employees are expected to take voluntary redundancy.
The move comes after Shell cut its dividend last year for the first time since World War Two.
Shell, which employs 83,000 people worldwide, has been hit by a substantial drop in demand and profits since February this year.
It saw a 46 per cent fall in first-quarter net income to £2.3billion, while second-quarter income fell 82 per cent, as the industry continued to be hammered by lockdown.
The company has already announced a wider cost-cutting drive to deliver annual savings of $2billionn by 2022.
“We have had to act quickly and decisively and make some very tough financial decisions to ensure we remained resilient, including cutting the dividend,” said chief executive Ben van Beurden.
“But as hard as they were, they were entirely the appropriate choices to make. And Covid-19 has hit us in another way. We have, very sadly, lost six employees and six contractor colleagues to the virus.”
Van Beurden said Shell plans to become a net-zero emissions energy business within 30 years.
“We will have some oil and gas in the mix of energy we sell by 2050, but it will be predominantly low-carbon electricity, low-carbon biofuels, it will be hydrogen and it will be all sorts of other solutions too,” he said.