Shell – is next in line after AP, Chevron – has decided to part with part of its workforce in order to launch its restructuring and its switch to cleaner energy production. This decision is primarily part of the efforts to reorganize the company’s activities.

With a view to restructuring its activities over the next 30 years, Shell has decided to shed 9,000 positions within its workforce. This is the equivalent of 10% of the Anglo-Dutch giant’s workforce. With the cut, the company says it wants to eliminate organizational complexity and achieve annual operating cost reductions of up to $ 2.5 billion.

“We’re doing this because we have to and it’s the right thing to do for the future of the business. We need to be an organization that is simpler, more rational, more competitive, more agile and able to respond to the needs of customers, ” said Ben van Beurden, the boss of the company.

This reduction in the workforce will be completed by the end of 2022. Of the 9,000 departures planned, there are 1,500 voluntary departures this year. We do not yet know which branches of the company will be affected by this decision.

Shell thus joins BP which announced the cut of 10,000 jobs, in order to adapt to the new realities of the oil market and to recover from the rout in the sector. The two giants have in common that they want to become producers of cleaner energy over the coming decades.

……Chevron Nigeria to Retrench 2000 workers, Labour Unions Kick

 Chevron Nigeria’s manager of public affairs Esimaje Brikinn was reported as saying that the company was working to make the business “competitive and have an appropriately sized organisation with improved processes. This will increase efficiency and effectiveness, retain value, reduce cost, and generate more revenue for the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

Some suggestions from local labour complained that Chevron Nigeria was planning to shift to US labour. The company has denied this.

Brikinn continued to say that Chevron Nigeria was working with its joint venture partners, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

“At [Chevron Nigeria], the welfare and safety of our workforce is one of our highest priorities. Making changes to the organisation is never easy for anyone that will be impacted, but it is necessary to improve our ability to remain competitive in Nigeria.”

The chairman of Chevron branch of labour union Pengassan Ete Oyegbanren said in a statement that 2,000 workers had been “constructively dismissed” and asked to reapply.

Pengassan has asked the Nigerian government to order Chevron Nigeria to comply with local laws and regulations in the industry.

Nupeng and Pengassan issued a statement asking the government to call the company to order. “Otherwise we can no longer guarantee industrial peace in the oil and gas sector.” Sacking workers, the unions said, was the “imperialist agenda”.