Shell Offers Staff Voluntary Severance Pay
As the price of a Brent barrel is trading at nearly half of what it was at the beginning of the year, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS.A) is planning on offering some staff voluntary severance, according to Bloomberg sources.
In a note to its staff, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said that the Dutch oil major was working to become leaner and more resilient, according to the Bloomberg sources who saw the correspondence.
The move comes after Shell cut its dividend in April for the first time since 1945—by two-thirds—in what even Shell considered an “inevitable moment” given the oil price route and uncertainty around demand. Shell also cut spending in March, by $5 billion per year compared to 2019 levels, to $20 billion.
Shell may also make more job cuts in the second half of the year, the sources said.
Shell said it would “go through a comprehensive review of the company,” adding that “where appropriate, we will redesign our organization to adapt to a different future and emerge stronger,” Shell told Bloomberg today.
The oil price crunch has caused almost all companies to take a look at their financial plans. Already, the oil and gas industry in Texas alone has seen more than 30,000 jobs cut, and that figure is weeks old and will likely grow. Even as the United States begins to emerge from its restrictive lockdowns that has taken a chunk out of oil demand, it is widely expected that this demand will not snap back full force in the coming weeks, and many oil and gas companies—including the national oil companies–are prudently reviewing how their current strategies will fit into this gloomy outlook on oil demand and are making painful changes as necessary.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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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.
