HOUSTON (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co said on Thursday it was considering staff cuts at its refineries and chemical plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast to reduce costs in the current recession.
Among the plants where reductions are being considered are the refineries Shell operates jointly with Saudi Aramco through Motiva Enterprises and a Deer Park, Texas, refinery operated jointly with Mexican state oil company Pemex, said spokeswoman Anne Peebles.
“It’s going to be different at every site,” Peebles said. “We’re going to do this on a site by site basis.”
Shell has no plans to sell any of its refineries and chemical plants, contrary to rumors circulating in the communities where they are based, she said.
Shell Oil’s corporate parent Royal Dutch Shell Plc has previously said thousands of staff could be eliminated worldwide to cut costs, but the reduction plans discussed so far have focused on global upstream operations, which were reorganized earlier this year, and corporate headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands.
In January, Motiva pushed back by two years the completion date for a planned 325,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) expansion at the 285,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery to 2012.
Last week, Shell said it may close or sell its Montreal East refinery in Canada.
The total number of positions that may be eliminated has not been determined. The reductions could include salaried, hourly and contract workers, Peebles said.
The recession has hit some of Shell’s refineries hard, with the 235,000 bpd Motiva refinery in Convent, Louisiana, losing money for a year, according to sources familiar with Shell’s operations.
Positions to be eliminated were identified by Shell using internal formulas to set staffing levels, according to a source familiar with Shell’s plans.
Reducing staff could increase risk of worker fatigue at the plants. Fatigue was identified as a factor in the deadly 2005 explosion at BP’s giant Texas City, Texas, refinery.
“We’re going to be looking to ensure our sites remain safe,” Peebles said.
Shell Chemical has major manufacturing plants in Mobile, Alabama; Geismar and Norco, Louisiana, and Deer Park, Texas.
In addition to the Port Arthur and Convent refineries, Motiva operates a 236,400-bpd refinery in Norco, Louisiana.
Deer Park Refining, Shell and Pemex’s 50-50 joint-venture, operates the 329,800 bpd refinery in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas. The Deer Park refinery is the ninth-largest in the United States.
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
