Global oil giant Shell is to cut 90 jobs at its N. Sea head office in Aberdeen – more than 10% of its workforce in the city.
The company’s 1,700-strong workforce in Aberdeen were told about the redundancies at meetings earlier today.
A Shell spokesman in London said the cuts are necessary to help it maintain competitiveness and ensure the long-term sustainability of its North Sea business. No jobs are being lost from the offshore workforce.
The jobs are expected to go by the end of the year. Of the 90 posts going, half are full-time employees with the rest made up of agency staff and contractors.
Last month Shell reported that its first-quarter profits for 2017 had jumped to $3.4 billion (£2.6 billion) from $1 billion last year. Crude oil prices – at around $50-barrel this year – were almost double that of 1Q2016.
Meanwhile, Brent crude drifted aimlessly – losing about 3 cents – to around $50.73 in earlier trading today despite efforts by the Saudi-led OPEC cartel to hike up prices by restricting supply.
However, U.S. crude production is rising fast as new technology helps to extract shale oil, making the United States more self-sufficient in energy.
In effect, it means OPEC is trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it as increased US shale replaces what OPEC cuts – continuously exerting downward pressure on crude oil prices.
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