Aberdeen Shell jobs look safe in latest culling

Further 1,000 positions to be shed

By Keith Findlay
Published: 17/03/2010

March 17, 2010: Robin Pagnamenta Energy Editor

Royal Dutch Shell will sell full or part-stakes in as many as 9,000 petrol stations worldwide and cut a further 1,000 jobs as it intensifies its global cost-cutting.

The announcement came as Shell appeared to be edging closer to a deal with Arrow Energy to bolster the group’s position in Australia’s fast-growing industry supplying coal-seam gas to China and South-East Asia.

Peter Voser, the chief executive, said that Shell intends to leave about 30 of the 90 countries in which it operates petrol stations. The move, which is already under way, is part of a focus on more profitable markets and on exploration and production.

“We are leaving retail markets where we have low volumes,” Mr Voser told Shell’s annual strategy briefing in London. These would include Greece, Sweden, Vietnam and New Zealand.

Globally, Shell holds interests in about 45,000 petrol stations, of which just under 30,000 are operated directly by the company. Yesterday it indicated that by 2012 it would sell about 2,000 sites outright and cut the number that it operated directly by almost 7,000.

Sites no longer operated directly would follow a model that Shell has pioneered in America, where its retail sites retain the Shell brand and are supplied wholesale by the company but are operated by third parties.

Shell is selling fuel stations in Spain and Portugal. In France, it will leave many of its smaller, regional stations but plans to retain its more profitable, high-volume motorway network.

Britain, where Shell operates about 900 fuel stations and is the biggest player by volume in the retail market, is not expected to bear the brunt of the sales.

Richard Savage, of Mirabaud Securities, said that the move reflected an effort “to release capital to spend more on production”.

The announcement came as Mr Voser said that Shell expected to boost crude oil production by 11 per cent to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2012, up from 3.15 million — reversing seven years of consecutive declines. “All this is underpinned by a new wave of project start-ups,” Mr Voser said. “Beyond that we have an upstream portfolio that can grow to at least 2020.”

He also announced a further 1,000 job cuts, raising the total expected to 7,000 during 2009-11. Shell employed about 102,000 people before Mr Voser revealed the first phase of his reorganisation last July.

He called for “more focus and more urgency”, adding that most of the cuts would be in refining and marketing — which is struggling in the face of the worst industry downturn in 20 years — and in middle management. “The company had become too complicated and slower to respond than we’d like, so we are sharpening up,” he said.

The chief executive’s remarks came as Arrow Energy said that it was in “active discussions” with Shell and Petrochina over their joint $3 billion takeover offer.

Shell, which confirmed the talks but declined to comment, also announced positive news on the discovery of new supplies of oil and gas. The company said that 2009 was the “best year for exploration in a decade”, after finds in Australia and the Gulf of Mexico gave it new reserves equal to almost three times the amount of oil and gas that it produced.

Shell’s reserves at present production rates had increased from ten years at the end of 2008 to 11.9 years at the end of 2009.

TIMES ARTICLE

Shell is to cut a further 1,000 jobs. Photograph: Graham Turner

Royal Dutch Shell announced a further 1,000 job cuts today as the Anglo-Dutch firm admitted it had been slow to respond to the global slump.

The oil group, which has 100,000 staff worldwide, cut 5,000 posts last year and had already announced a further 1,000 job losses for this year.

Chief executive Peter Voser said the group would axe another 1,000 posts by the end of 2011 as he presented his strategic update for the firm.

“The company had become too complicated and slower to respond than we’d like. So we are sharpening up,” he said.

Shell gave no details on where the cuts would fall. It employs around 8,500 staff in the UK at sites including Aberdeen, London and the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, which is up for sale.

Voser said Shell was entering a “new period of growth” as he pledged to turn around years of underperformance and increase production 11% to 3.5m barrels a day by 2012.

SOURCE ARTICLE

• Shell to quit 9,000 petrol stations worldwide

SOURCE ARTICLE

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MARCH 16, 2010, 6:47 A.M. ET By Lananh Nguyen and Jeffrey Sparshott Of Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) said Tuesday it made a $7.6 million severance payment to the former head of its gas and power division last year, making her the highest-earning executive at the Anglo-Dutch oil major in 2009.

Van der Veer was the second-highest paid executive last year, with total earnings at $4.88 million.

-By Lananh Nguyen and Jeffrey Sparshott, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20-7842-9479; lananh.nguyen@dowjones.com

(James Herron contributed to this report.)

WSJ ARTICLE

Associated Press,  03.16.10, 05:46 AM EDT

AMSTERDAM — Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it will boost production by 11 percent by 2012 from 2009 levels, slightly more than previously forecast, and sell assets and cut more jobs.

The company said Tuesday it will cut 2,000 jobs before 2012, 1,000 more than previously announced.

FORBES ARTICLE

By LANANH NGUYEN

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MARCH 16, 2010

LONDON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Chief Executive Peter Voser’s earnings rose 22% in 2009 to $4.4 million, according to the company’s annual report Tuesday.

Mr. Voser, who became CEO in July 2009, earned $3.6 million in 2008 while serving as the company’s chief financial officer. The earnings include Mr. Voser’s salary and performance bonus.

Shell proposed in February changes to how it pays its executive directors in an attempt to assuage concerns that led shareholders to reject its remuneration package last year.

“In my view, the most significant of these changes are that we have committed not to use upward discretion on share awards without prior consultation with major shareholders, we have updated the metrics for the incentive plans and we have ended the practice of free matching shares in our deferred bonus plan,” said Hans Wijers, chairman of the Shell’s remuneration committee, in a letter to shareholders.

— James Herron contributed to this article.

WSJ ARTICLE

Since becoming Shell’s chief executive last year, Peter Voser has announced divestment plans in the company’s refining and marketing branch. He wants to reduce Shell’s refining capacity by 15%, or around 600,000 barrels a day, over a three-year

By Fred Pals

March 15 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, vying with BP Plc to be Europe’s largest oil and gas ompany, will outline a plan tomorrow to increase output every year until 2020, a person familiar with the company’s strategy said.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser, due to brief investors at an annual strategy update in London, will say Shell has a pipeline of more than 20 projects with the potential to sustain low single-digit average annual production growth in the second half of the decade, the person said, asking not to be indentified because the presentation hasn’t yet been made.

Shell is seeking to revive oil and gas output with projects in Qatar, Malaysia and Brazil after production fell for a seventh consecutive year in 2009. The company, based in The Hague, hasn’t previously given annual targets beyond 2012, saying only its reserves will allow it to increase production in the second half of the decade.

Voser has targeted $1 billion in cost savings this year and will cut 1,000 more jobs in an effort to weather the economic slowdown, which has reduced fuel demand in the U.S. and Europe. The Swiss CEO, who succeeded Jeroen van der Veer in July, will reiterate the need to cut costs and indicate capital spending plans beyond 2012, the person familiar with his strategy said.

A spokesman at Shell’s press office declined to comment on the briefing when contacted by phone today.

Voser will say Shell expects gas-to-liquids and liquefied natural gas projects in Qatar, the BC-10 project in Brazil and Perdido in the Gulf of Mexico to be on schedule, the person said.

Production Drop

Shell’s production fell 3 percent to 3.152 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2009 from 3.248 million barrels a day in 2008. The company’s London-traded shares have gained 17 percent in the last year, trailing a 35 percent gain for its closest rival BP Plc.

BP on March 2 announced plans to increase pretax profitability by $3 billion over the next two to three years by boosting production and making the refining and marketing business more efficient. BP intends to raise average annual oil and gas output by 1 to 2 percent through 2015.

Shell has earmarked net capital spending of $28 billion this year, about $8 billion more than BP.

–Editors: Will Kennedy, Stephen Cunningham.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Pals in Amsterdam at fpals@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

This is Money

City Diary: Week ahead in the markets

Press Association
12 March 2010, 4:43pm

Attempts by Royal Dutch Shell to address its production difficulties will be in the spotlight next week…

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Peter Voser faces a tough challenge on Tuesday when he presents the oil major’s strategy update to a sceptical City.