Up to a third of senior management under threat
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Hot on the heels of the surprise resignation of top executive Linda Cook, Shell’s in-coming chief executive Peter Voser announced major restructuring plans yesterday that could cut thousands of rank-and-file jobs.
Some 24,000 staff at the Anglo-Dutch oil giant will be affected by the changes, with job losses expected to be in the thousands. Up to a third of senior management are believed to be under threat.
There are three major structural changes. The company’s three upstream businesses exploration and production (EP), gas and power (GP) and oil sands will be combined into two, new regional units: Upstream Americas and Upstream International. Mr Voser is also creating an entirely new “Projects & Technology” division which will manage everything from R&D to project delivery to contracting and procurement. Finally, some parts of Shell corporate are to be absorbed into specific business units, while the rest is streamlined under a single combined human resources (HR) corporate director role.