Aberdeen hit by another oil jobs blow

Shell have announced more major job losses as the industry struggles with the low price of oil

Published 25th May 2016

Shell have announced more major job losses as the industry struggles with the low price of oil.

475 posts will go here – one in five of the workforce.

Their Vice President for UK and Ireland Paul Goodfellow has made the announcement to staff in Aberdeen.

He said: “We’re continuing the improvement journey we’ve been on to create a competitive and sustainable business in the North Sea. 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.

“As a result, we will reduce the size of the organisation supporting our UK and Ireland Upstream business by around 475 people. We will look to implement the majority of this change during 2016.

“Following these changes, Shell will still remain a key employer in the North East of Scotland with around 1,700 employees.

“The reductions we’re announcing today in Aberdeen are part of a global programme of job reductions in Shell. Last year, in response to the oil price downturn, we made the tough but necessary decision to remove 7,500 Shell staff and direct contractor roles and this has now been completed. Separately, as previously announced, a further 2,800 global staff reductions were initially identified as part of the BG integration, which is now well underway.

“These are tough times for our industry and we have to take further difficult decisions to ensure Shell remains competitive through the current, prolonged downturn. In 2016, the number of job reductions in response to low prices and as a result of the BG integration is expected to total at least 5,000 globally. This number includes the 2,800 integration-related roles previously announced.”