There is disquiet in Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN) as over 270 staff and 900 contractors will be laid off as the oil giant commences its energy transition and decarbonisation strategy.
Royal Dutch Shell announced last year it would cut as much as 9,000 jobs across it operations worldwide, which is more than 10 per cent of its global workforce. The jobs cuts are anchored on reorganization that seeks to transform it into an energy company that produces fewer greenhouse-gas emissions as well as adapting to the realities of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on businesses worldwide
Chad Holliday, Shell Chair and Ben Van Beurden, the Chief Executive Officer, in Energy Transition Strategy, published earlier this year, confirmed the oil plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The Strategy aims to reduce net carbon emissions by between six per cent and eight per cent by 2023 when compared to 2016 levels and the target jumps up to 20 per cent by 2030, 45 per cent by 2035, and 100 per cent by 2050 in step with society’s progress towards the goal of the UN Paris Agreement on climate change.
Data Obtained by TBI Africa magazine from the websites of Shell Global and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) show that Shell employs 83,000 people worldwide, while its Nigerian operation – SPDC employs about 2,700 people of whom 97 per cent are Nigerians.
According to Shell 2021 Briefing Notes in its website, “Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN) empower their employees and develop talent for the future. SCiN invest in people with strong technical and leadership capabilities, giving them the tools and accountability to deliver.
“SCiN directly employ around 2,700 people and more than 9,000 contractors in Nigeria. The majority of Shell’s staff (97 per cent) are local Nigerians.
“Also, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria joint venture (SPDC JV) focuses on oil and gas production in the Niger Delta. The joint venture has the largest acreage in the country and operates a leased area of 31,000 square kilometres. It produces more than half a million barrels of oil per day on average with capacity to produce more,” the Briefing Notes said..
With the energy transition programme, attention and funding are shifting to renewable energies. In other words, all the benefits that derive from extraction of hydrocarbon in Nigeria will also begin to shrink with its attendant negative impacts on economic and social wellbeing of Nigeria.
Already, investigation has shown that the over 10 per cent job cut will be evenly distributed across its operations globally indicating that over 10 per cent of its Nigerian workforce will go.
Going by the figures obtained, over 10 per of the 2,700 staff and 9,000 contractors will lose their means of income. This means that over 270 staff will lose their jobs in Nigeria, while over 900 contractors will also go.
TBI Africa investigation reveals that currently Shell Nigeria Companies in Nigeria have begun to merge some offices to trim down the size of the workforce, some have been penciled down for exit, while some have voluntarily chosen to go under (voluntary retirement). The workforce reduction cuts across all cadres of staff including management staff.
TBI Africa further gathered that implementation of the job cut exercise will begin mid-July (this month) and completed by end of July when staff members would know who stays and who has gone.
