Oil major, Shell, will be sacking 200 employees in 2024 and has placed another 130 positions at its low carbon solutions unit as part of a drive to reduce the headcount in the unit, which numbers around 1,300 employees.
Some of these roles will be integrated into other parts of Shell, which employs more than 90,000 people, the company added.
The job cut represents at least 15 per cent of the workforce in the n as the firm plans to scale back its hydrogen business as part of the Chief Executidivisiove Officer, CEO, Wael Sawan’s drive to boost profits, it said on Wednesday.
The staff cuts and organizational changes come after Sawan, who took the helm in January, vowed to revamp Shell’s strategy to focus on higher-margin projects, steady oil output and grow natural gas production, reports Reuters.
“We are transforming our Low Carbon Solutions (LCS) business to strengthen its delivery on our core low-carbon business areas such as transport and industry,” the company said.
The LCS operations include the hydrogen and other businesses looking at decarbonizing the transport and industry sectors, but do not include the renewable power business.
Shell managers last week held several town hall meetings with the LCS division where the job cuts and organizational changes were announced, company sources said.
The division also includes Shell’s carbon capture and storage and nature-based solutions businesses, which will not be impacted by the current round of cuts, the sources said.
The main focus of the changes has been the hydrogen business.
Shell plans to sharply scale back its hydrogen light mobility operations, which develop technologies for light passenger vehicles, and will focus on heavy mobility and industry, the company said.
It will also merge two of four general manager roles in the hydrogen business, Shell said.
The retreat from the light mobility sector follows the departure of the business’s manager Oliver Bishop several months ago. Bishop today leads rival BP’s global hydrogen mobility business.
Shell was one of the early backers of hydrogen-fuelled cars, but it has in recent years closed a number of hydrogen fuelling stations around the world, including in Britain, as consumers opted instead for electric vehicles.
