Thread regarding Shell Oil layoffs

@tm computational team is many

@r7 prior to reshape Shell had 90k staff and after reshape that number dropped to 80k. By 2023, Shell was back over 100k staff. Amazing how much bloat is in the company.

@r7 from last annual report we had 27000 employees in corporate function roles. Of those 22000 or so are in the SBOs. If we defend SBOs as necessary because of their lower cost locations, then that’s still 5000 that should be deeply vetted to determine if they are still necessary. There better be a business justification endorsed by business leaders and not just the VP of that corporate group saying, “you’ll be sorry if you let us go.” This isn’t counting functions that are embedded within the businesses. These are pure overhead in the corporate functions tabs in our homepage. Just one example of how fu--ing bloated we still are.

According to the 2025 Annual Reports, Shell had 85,000 employees and Exxon had 58,000. Wael is not going to be happy until the staff counts are closer to Exxon numbers.

Wael’s vision for Shell appears increasingly centred on sustaining rather than growing oil production, selective LNG expansion, trading optimisation, relentless cost reductions, portfolio divestments, workforce rationalisation and shareholder distributions. Financial returns seem to take precedence over meaningful organic growth, exploration, innovation and resource replacement. The danger is that Shell becomes increasingly reliant on financial engineering rather than investing in its core businesses, gradually eroding its technical capabilities, future opportunities and long-term competitiveness. Shell may emerge leaner and deliver stronger short-term returns, only to find itself a diminished company with fewer assets, less expertise and little left to underpin its future.

Wael calls discipline his superpower, but discipline alone doesn’t build a company. Shell is focusing on LNG, trading, and selective upstream investments, while Exxon is aggressively expanding its production capacity and investing for the future.

Wael wants Exxon’s valuation, but can cost cuts, divestments, and buybacks get him there? Financial discipline can improve the numbers, but it doesn’t guarantee long-term growth.

The real test isn’t how much Wael can cut, but what he can actually build.

Shell easily has 30-50% too much staff overall. When the company can spend its time worrying about things like SEAM VCR (Value-Carbon-Ratios), PCAP for NOV's, assurance processes that detail risks from a pre-read document just because the board "might" read them, OVA, Investment Appraisal Notes that add nothing that wasn't in the GIP, CR/GR folks that don't actually change the narrative ("Lobbying").... and many of these jobs are so far from the actual work site that they might as well be in Bangalore.

To truly address the corporate poison that infects the blood stream, Shell needs to bleed it out. Erase the make-work, the empires, the untouchables. Go back to how it found its original success - risk taking, shareholder value and entrepreneurial spirit.

With all the staff cuts announced over the past several years I’m really surprised there’s anyone left to turn on the lights.
If layoffs and asset sales are the best corporate announcements we strive to be known for, we seriously have the wrong folks on the ship’s bridge.

Does anybody know any job cuts in lubricants? And testing ?

Finance is one of the types of roles that definitely is going to see some AI intervention is some job duties. One thing that is VERY clear about Shell is that overhead is way too much. Anyone who came into Shell from a smaller company can see this. 50%? That seems too deep, too fast.

@OP this is consistent with all groups considered to be corporate overheard or in the “corporate functions” groups: SBO, health, security and aircraft. Finance, legal, legacy P&T also fall into that. There was a thread on here back in the summer about 50% cuts to all their budgets from 2026-2030.

@OP computational team will do work load.