staff of Chevron and Shell as the two multinationals begin compilation
of 8,000 names for sack.
According to New Telegraph, plans are underway by
Chevron and Shell to sack 8, 000 staff as the accounts of the oil
firms slips into red.
Further checks by this newspaper at the weekend
revealed that managements of the two oil companies have begun to compile
names of those who will be affected in Nigeria. This action, sources at
the two oil firms told this newspaper, was occasioned by earlier
correspondences sent to managements of the companies’ subsidiaries in
Nigeria.
“That is what everybody is talking about here,” a Shell staff said
after his anonymity was guaranteed. “The situation is even worse for
some of us who are nontechnical staff,” his Chevron’s counterpart added.
He continued: “Up till now we do not know how many staff in Nigeria
will be affected but we are aware that the list being compiled has a
mandate to include about 95 per cent of staff from finance: audit and
accounting; human resources, government, public relations and
communications among others. “The remaining five per cent will make up
technical staff, who are due for retirement and those with incriminating
memos in their files,” he said.
The New York Times had reported penultimate Sunday that Chevron would
axe 7,000 staff in addition to the 1,500 it announced early this year
while Shell, according to Reuters, also plans to sack 1000 more staff
different from the 6,500 it announced for sack in the first quarter.
Although the two multi-nationals did not give a break-down of how
many staff in their Nigerian operations will be affected, Chevron said
on its website that Nigeria “is an important part of Chevron’s business
globally” while Shell, which is also the biggest oil firm in Nigeria in
terms of assets and production, “produces substantial volume of its
global output from Nigeria.”
Like Chevron and Shell, other international oil companies (IOCs) at
the weekend posted unprecedented losses in the third quarter, which is
the worst since the downturn started. The trio of Chevron, Shell and
Eni, with heavy assets and production in Nigeria, posted $12 billion
losses in three months as their outlooks dimmed.
While Chevron’s losses hit $3.6 billion, Shell posted $7.4 billion
loss after heavy write-offs and Italian major, Eni, reported $1 billion
loss. Exxon Mobil, the largest American oil company, reported a loss of
$3.9 billion for the third quarter.
It posted $4.2 billion compared with
$8.1 billion a year earlier. ConocoPhillips recorded $1.1 billion loss
as France’s Total also had a sharp drop in profit.
Shell, which Reuters said had the lowest cash flow break-even point
at around $66 a barrel, said it would axe 1,000 additional jobs after
the 6,500 job cuts announced earlier this year. Shell’s Chief Executive,
Ben van Beurden, who gave the third quarter report, said at the weekend
that Net profit excluding identified items collapsed to $1.8 billion
from $5.85 billion a year ago.
Shell posted a third quarter loss of $7.4
billion, according to Beurden, hit by a massive $8.2 billion charge
after halting its exploration in Alaska’s Arctic sea and a costly oil
sands project in Canada.