Shell Is Cutting Spending; To Sack 6,500 Workers

What happened to all the billions of Dollars they've made from oil fields in Nigeria for several years?

Shell petroleum development company, SPDC, says it will axe 6,500 workers this year and begin a process of cutting spendings, to deal with an extended period of lower oil prices in the global market.

Shell wants to sack 6,500 staff and direct contract workers from a total of nearly 100,000 employees.

“We have to be resilient in a world where oil prices remain low for some time, whilst keeping an eye on recovery,” said Ben van Beurden, Shell's Chief Executive Officer.

Besides, the company announced on Thursday in London the sale of a 33 percent stake in the Showa Shell refinery in Japan to Idemitsu, for about $1.4 billion.

The Anglo-Dutch company also said it was planning more asset disposals, bringing total asset sales between 2014 and 2018 to $50 billion.

Lower oil prices have contributed to a 37 percent drop in the oil and gas group’s second-quarter profits. And the group said it would reduce 2015 capital investment for the second time this year to $30 billion by 20 percent from a year ago.

Big oil companies have cut 2015 spending by 10 to 15 percent from 2014, to cope with fall in oil prices over the past year to below $55 a barrel from over a $100.

Shell said its operating costs were expected to fall by $4 billion, or around 10 percent, in 2015 as part of a broad efficiency drive to boost its balance sheet.