Page 9 - NorthAmOil Week 35

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

Energy sector job cuts loom

in North America and beyond

A number of oil and gas companies have warned of looming job cuts in

North America, as well as elsewhere in the world

GLOBAL JOB cuts in the oil and gas industry have been stronger for the future,” an ExxonMobil spokes-
heavy recently, with 118,000 such jobs estimated man, Casey Norton, was quoted by Reuters as
WHAT: to have been lost in the US alone between March saying.
Several oil and gas and July this year, during the worst of the crude This comes after the company had initially
companies are preparing price downturn and coronavirus (COVID-19) said it would not be making any lay-offs as a
for a new wave of lay-offs pandemic. Indeed, some companies had been result of the pandemic. However, the way mar-
in North America and shedding jobs prior to this in an attempt to ket conditions have played out has caused it to
overseas. become leaner and cut costs. Now, a new wave of re-evaluate its position. In July, ExxonMobil
job cuts is looming, with a handful of companies reported a second-quarter loss that marked its
WHY: unveiling plans for lay-offs in North America, as first back-to-back quarterly loss, alongside the
The industry is under well as some North American companies warn- one in the first quarter, in at least 36 years. The
considerable pressure ing of job losses at their overseas operations. company has also sought to protect its dividend,
as a result of the current slashing capital expenditure for 2020 by 30% in
downturn. Global cuts the process, and warning of more – potentially
One big name in the news this week because of deeper – cuts to spending in 2021.
WHAT NEXT: global job cuts is super-major ExxonMobil. The In the US, 8-10% of employees went through
The challenge for workers company announced on September 2 that it had evaluations, with those ranked in the lowest cat-
will be compounded by started a voluntary redundancy programme for egory given 30 days to decide whether they want
automation increasingly its Australian employees in a bid to survive what to try to meet their managers’ goals or leave the
rendering certain jobs it described as “unprecedented” market condi- company. This was an increase from 3% of US
obsolete. tions. The company has not specified how many employees going through the process in 2019.
employees it is seeking to cut in Australia. On the super-major’s second-quarter earn-
ExxonMobil also said it was assessing further ings call, ExxonMobil’s senior vice-president
job cuts globally, with Australia the first country Neil Chapman said the company was evaluating
outside the US where it has completed a review its workforce requirements and looking at reduc-
of its business. tions “business by business and country by coun-
“We have evaluations underway on a coun- try” as a result of reduced activity globally.
try-by-country basis to assess possible additional Norton warned that it was “premature” to
efficiencies to right-size our business and make it draw conclusions for other countries until the

ExxonMobil is reviewing
potential staff cuts
globally on a country-
by-country basis.

Week 35 03•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9