ROYAL Dutch Shell has announced plans to cut around 330 jobs in its UK North Sea oil and gas business which is run from Aberdeen.
The cuts will reduce total employee numbers in the Anglo-Dutch giant’s North Sea business to around 1,000.
It is understood the bulk of the cuts will affect office-based roles in Aberdeen.
READ MORE: Warning - fresh spike in North Sea job losses looming amid continued pressure on firms
The cuts are being made under a programme initiated by Shell amid the oil price plunge that was triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
The programme will help the oil and gas giant save money. It also forms part of efforts to reshape the group to allow it to play a part in the transition to a lower carbon energy system.
Shell plans to increase investment in areas such as wind and hydrogen power and carbon, capture and storage.
The group has indicated it remains committed to the North Sea.
In October Shell confirmed the UK North Sea was one of the core regions it would focus on under a growth strategy that is expected to see it remain in the upstream oil and gas production business for years.
The group has said the profits it generates from oil and gas production will allow it to make the required investment in low carbon energy sources in support of efforts to slow climate change.
The cuts announced yesterday continue a process of retrenchment in the North Sea that has been underway at Shell for some time.
The process accelerated amid the deep downturn in the North Sea that followed the sharp fall in oil prices between 2014 and 2016.
Shell sold off a raft of North Sea assets and shed hundreds of jobs in the area. In 2016 Shell announced plans to close an accounts centre in Glasgow where around 400 people worked.
READ MORE: Cut-price exit from North Sea by energy giant SSE bodes ill for area
The latest North Sea job cuts will be completed over a two- year period. The company is expected to try to minimise compulsory redundancies.
In August Shell announced plans to shed 9,000 jobs globally in support of a simplification programme that it expected to help it save up to $2.5 billion (£1.9bn) annually. The programme was expected to result in a reduction of around 10 per cent in total employee numbers at the group.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here