SHELL has said it plans to cut 7,000 to 9,000 jobs as it responds to challenges including the slump in oil demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The oil giant said the cuts would be implemented by 2022 and included 1,500 people who were taking voluntary redundancy.
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It gave no indication of where the job losses would happen.
Ben van Beurden, Shell chief executive, said the job cuts were “the right thing to do for the future of the company” as it strives to become a net-zero emissions energy business.
Shell employs 83,000 people worldwide, including 6,000 in the UK. It has been hit by a substantial drop in profits since the pandemic struck.
It saw a 46% fall in first-quarter net income to $2.9bn (£2.3bn), while second-quarter income fell 82% to $638m.
Mr van Beurden said: “It is very painful to know that you will end up saying goodbye to quite a few good people.
“But we are doing this because we have to, because it is the right thing to do for the future of the company.”
He reiterated that Shell intended to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner.
That meant the company had to change the type of products it sold, he said.
“We will have some oil and gas in the mix of energy we sell by 2050, but it will be predominantly low-carbon electricity, low-carbon biofuels, it will be hydrogen and it will be all sorts of other solutions too,” he said.
